I did not know how the Celts game would end but wow. Jimmy with six steals, just to choose one data point. Although it looks like Bam, Strus and Gabe did damage.

That said, last year’s Ayton put up a 2.2 OBPM, over double this year’s Mitch (but still worse by ORAPTOR). Ayton still put up a .600 TS% on 23% usage this year anyway.

The question is if Ayton is being held back statistically because Phoenix runs their offense through their guards & wings rather than featuring Ayton. Can he up his usage to Randle ranges on a different team? If he does, can he sustain his TS%? Ayton was assisted on ~80% of his shots.

On the other hand Mitch is pretty well liked by every advanced metrics, literally doubled Ayton’s ORB%, and plays much better defense.

Remember when the Heat got Kyle Lowry and we all thought, “Wow, that was a perfect move for them,” and then he sucked for two years but is now playing like how we all thought he would play when they got him? That’s weird, right?

I actually think Mitch is better than Ayton. And for the tax hit we’d rack up I think it’s a no brainier to keep Mitch.

It’s easy to fall in love with skillset, but Ayton just isn’t productive enough, or at least hasn’t shown it.

You could be right. I remember the team acquired Fournier because we needed shooting and it didn’t work out well even though he is a definitely a good shooter.

The Heat sweeping would be amazing. It’d also be funny if they played the Lakers, and Miami would have home court as a #8 seed!!!

Celtics won’t go that easily, though. We’ll see.

(Also, maybe they’d be more open to a sign and trade off Brown if they lost?)

I also despise Twitter, but watching people lose their minds over this fiasco there is cathartic.