After months of speculation about where Deandre Ayton could end up, he will be remaining with the Phoenix Suns for the foreseeable future. Ayton agreed to a four-year, $133 million offer sheet with the Indiana Pacers, the largest offer sheet for a restricted free agent in NBA history.

The Suns then had 48 hours to decide whether or not they wanted to match the offer sheet. It ended up not taking very long, as Phoenix did match. It ended a nearly year-long standoff as Suns’ ownership had no plans of offering Ayton a max contract. His representation was confident they would eventually find one and they did from Indiana.

What looked to be a partnership coming to an end could now be extended for multiple seasons. However, there is a chance that Ayton and the Suns still part ways sooner than later. Zach Lowe, during a recent episode of his podcast, shared some insight on the situation as Ayton is eligible to be traded in January.

“The weirdness of the Ayton situation, both the contract negotiations, the widespread perception, I’m talking widespread around the league that the bridge was pretty much burned between Ayton and the team,” said Zach Lowe on his podcast.

“The comments that Monty Williams made after Game 7 when he pulled Ayton. There’s clearly some mending of fences that has to happen there. Can it happen? Is this just a ‘we’re waiting it out until we can trade him’ situation. That’s another interesting human dynamic.”

LATEST NBA NEWS AND TRADE RUMORS: Can Phoenix Suns, Deandre Ayton Put Tumultuous Free Agency Behind Them?

The relationship between Phoenix and the No. 1 overall pick in the 2018 NBA Draft has seemingly been deteriorating for months. There were some hard feelings during negotiations last offseason and things didn’t get better during the postseason or in the weeks following the team’s exit in the second round.

A lot of rumors swirled that the Suns were attempting to include Ayton in trade packages for Kevin Durant, which is part of what Lowe is referring to. Phoenix didn’t sound committed to retaining Ayton long-term and now he is locked into a lucrative four-year deal.

Once he is eligible to be traded in six months, rumors could once again begin swirling. While the offer sheet was matched, it seems like an inevitability that Ayton will be traded at some point during this contract.

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