25-under-25: The best of the rest

30. Deandre Ayton, Phoenix Suns

Spoiler Alert: Despite being the No. 1 overall pick in July’s NBA Draft, Deandre Ayton is not the highest ranked rookie on this list. Not even close, actually. Three rookies made the top 25 (I’ll leave you in suspense as to which ones), including a few other big men.

So why is Ayton, who along with Luca Doncic was universally regarded as a top-two prospect in his class, down here while others drafted after him have leapfrogged the 250-pound behemoth seemingly built for the modern game?

There’s not a great answer. Summer League didn’t show us much, and it’s not as if Ayton has had any off-court transgressions which would make anyone doubt his preparedness for the NBA.

Could it be the fact that he was drafted by the Phoenix Suns, an organization that hasn’t been able to get out of its own way since the day they traded Steve Nash? Possibly. It could also have to do with the fact that Ayton’s ceiling is Joel Embiid — a player who was essentially run off the court in the playoffs by a new-age Boston team that made even the best center in the NBA look obsolete at times.

If someone’s best case scenario is a player who we’re not totally sure can stay on the court at the highest levels of modern NBA competition, and there’s some doubt as to whether he even reaches that plateau, well…he ends up here. Still, if there’s one omission from our top 25 that will make us all look likes clowns a year from now, it’s this one.