The Suns’ Monty Williams hints at ‘inside’ reasons for playing only Deandre Ayton 17 minutes into Game 7 loss

The Phoenix SunsThe ‘Season’ ended in ruins on Sunday, as they lost Game 7 of their second round series with Dallas Mavericks, 123-90. Their 33-point loss was their worst home defeat in Game 7 since the St. Louis Bombers lost by 39 points in 1948.

While the night didn’t set anyone on the sun, it was especially cruel Dender Eaton. The huge man finished with five points and four rebounds in just 17 minutes of play. Some of that is down to the nature of the game, but even in such an explosion, most Suns players lasted more than 30 minutes.

The suspension of Suns coach Monty Williams added to the excitement.

When asked about iTunes’ lack of playing time, Williams saidIt’s internal. When pressed to explain this quote, he declined.

star guard Devin BookerMeanwhile, he has not made a strong plea for Eaton to return next season.

“Put his knot between him and the front office”, poker said. “I care about him as a brother. Just making sure his sanity is right…whatever happens, happens. It’s kind of hard to look far into the future.”

Eaton did not speak to the media after the match, so we don’t know his side of the story. However, The Suns will be doing exit interviews in the next few days, so we should hear back from him sometime in the near future.

In any case, his lack of playing time and the Suns’ early exit from the playoffs do not bode well for Ayton’s future with the club. As Booker noted in his quote, iTunes is set to hit restricted free agency this summer.

The two sides were unable to reach an agreement on an extension last year, and Eaton was upset with the franchise after not getting a full deal of a maximum of $172.5 million over five years, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Brian Windhorst. While Suns may have been open to a shorter maximum deal, no formal offers were ever made.

It’s hard to say what all this means for this summer. Eaton might want to go somewhere else and meet up with other clubs to see if someone would give him the real deal max. The Suns can match any bid paper, and it’s hard to imagine that they’d let him walk in without getting anything in return, opening up the possibility of signing and trading. Of course, there’s always the possibility that things will calm down over the next few weeks, and either Eaton will sign a new long-term deal with the club or take the $16.4 million one-year qualification offer.

Anyway, the case for iTunes would be great to follow.