No one says he sucks all the time. You just become Michael Stone’s mom any time someone dares to say a negative word about him. Most everyone is putting this series blame on CP3, and Bridges has gotten trashed for his Shawn Marion-impression, but yeah… Ayton deserves criticism too. He wants a MAX deal but has only shown up in 2 games (Game 1 and 6) and 1 great quarter in Game 5, but was so shaky in the first half, his coach BENCHED him because he was playing so soft around the rim. He’s supposed to the be third leg of this this team and he still drifts, even in the playoffs.
And you don’t consider Luka an Alpha? He’s the unquestioned leader of that team and the Mavs were atrocious for years before him. Got them into the playoffs his second year, took a healthy Kawai/George team to 7 last year and he’s got them within 1 game of the Conference Finals in year with nothing but role players around him.
He’s definitely an alpha.
And Ayton just isn’t elite defensively, no matter how many times you want to say it. He’s a solid but not spectacular rebounder, a bad shot blocker, is decent defending the perimeter most of the time (although Dallas has had their way Goberting in a lot of this series). And… he didn’t get ONE VOTE to make any All-Defensive team. Not ONE VOTE. You’d think if he was ELITE defensively, someone besides you might have noticed by now. I don’t think he’s EVER gotten ONE vote to make any defensive team.