Deandre Ayton Suspended For 25 Games, How Are The Suns Always Like This

The godforsaken Suns got their season off to a rare positive start Wednesday, erasing an 11-point first-half deficit and wiping out the visiting Kings, 124–95. Exciting second-year center Deandre Ayton was a huge factor, piling up 18 points, 11 rebounds, and four blocks, and finishing a game-high plus-25 in 33 minutes. Excitement! Optimism! Hope! For the first time in a jillion years, real hope! And then Ayton was suspended by the NBA Thursday for more than a quarter of the season. Womp womp.

Aron Baynes is a capable backup center, but it gets real thin from there, with Cheick Diallo and [gulp] Frank Kaminsky the only other interior players on the whole roster. There’s no rule that says the Suns can’t overcome this loss and rip off a decent 25-game stretch, beyond the universe’s determination that the Suns not be allowed to experience any prolonged periods of success, ever again. Also, they are now morally obligated to return this ill-gotten opening night win to its rightful owner, the Kings. Honor demands it!

Let’s take a moment to enjoy Ayton’s promising night against the Kings, since it’ll be mid-December before we see him on the court again, by which time the Suns will somehow be 100 games below .500: