That's fine, but basically everything we have to measure players says Ayton is better, and we know enough about how NBA teams evaluate players to know that a good chunk of their internals are similar to the metrics that are public, so some, possibly all of them probably also think Ayton is the more valuable player. If we're looking at future contract estimation that plays a major role. Ayton is in a much better position to get a max deal than Collins was.
Not caring about metrics doesn't mean NBA teams don't care about metrics. We aren't discussing whether WE would give Ayton a max, we're looking at whether he is LIKELY to get the max. And based on performance and trajectory his agent should be much more comfortable in the assumption that he'll get the max or very close to it barring an injury than Collins' was this time last year.
It only takes 1 GM and Altman is still in business. BUT RFA is salary dampening. While Sarvar is a cheapskate, he and his team have probably looked at this very closely and figure he can match whatever Kobi comes up with next summer.
a better question is: Who will most likely have salary space next summer and want to build their team around MAXing a 5 like Ayton?
Plenty of metrics had JC as good or better: BPM, VORP, ORtg/DRtg, OWS, On-Off, eFG%, 3pt%, PPG, etc
Many stats (like ORtg/DRtg) should favor Centers, but the bigger point is Center compensation is trending in one direction vs Wings. Statistically, they are very similar.
We'll see, it worked out for ATL to wait. I was kind of swayed into believing that JC/Lonzo would get maxed, but RFA Max contract is a bigger hill to climb than many give it credit for.
