The Suns drew a line in the sand in the Bradley Beal trade.
On Sunday, Phoenix traded Chris Paul, Landry Shamet and draft capital to the Washington Wizards for in a stunning move for Beal.
But when the Wizards asked for the Suns to include DeAndre Ayton in the deal, the Suns refused, according to sports radio host John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7 FM.
“Washington did ask for Deandre Ayton in the Beal trade and the Suns were unwilling to include him in the deal,” Gambadoro said recently on Twitter.
The 2018 No. 1 overall pick has averaged 16.7 points and 10.4 rebounds per game since entering the league.
This year, Ayton kept up the consistency with 18 points and 10 rebounds per night.
Though Ayton is not a perennial All-Star like his draft position would suggest, he has put up consistent numbers for a team that fell to the Nuggets in the Western Conference semifinals this past season.
The big man has three years and a shade over $100 million left on his deal, according to Spotrac.
Ayton’s stint in Phoenix hasn’t always been the smoothest, especially when the team wasn’t willing to sign the big man to the rookie extension that some of his 2018 draft classmates got.
But eventually, the Suns opted to match an offer sheet that the Indiana Pacers presented to Ayton when he was a restricted free agent at the end of the 2021-22 season.
As of now, Phoenix has more than $160 million tied to four players and little depth, and trading Ayton could be a way for the Suns to bolster their roster with rotation-level players.
Though there is a possibility the Suns could make a separate deal to get rid of Ayton, there appears to be one team that is out of the running.
MassLive reported that though Ayton still could be moved, the Celtics likely will not be the other team at the end of that trade.