If you read the media narratives surrounding Portland Trail Blazers starting center Deandre Ayton, you’ll see the same commentary again and again: Ayton is painted as a talented NBA center but criticized for never reaching the great potential of his athletic gifts.

Fair or unfair, that’s the reality of expectations when you enter the NBA as a No. 1 overall pick and still command max money upwards of $30 million per year.

In HoopsHype’s preseason rankings of the top 30 centers in the NBA, writer Frank Urbina placed Ayton at No. 15. Urbina framed Ayton’s accompanying write-up with that familiar, negative lens of criticism and potential.

Former No. 1 overall pick Deandre Ayton has had a pretty disappointing NBA career all things considered.

On one hand, he did play a part in his former team, the Phoenix Suns, making it all the way to the NBA Finals in 2020-21. On the other hand, that didn’t stop the Suns from trading him just a few years later to the Portland Trail Blazers, pretty much giving up on their former top overall draft pick.

Physically and skill-wise, Ayton has a ton of potential, as he’s quite athletic and has great size for a center, with the quickness needed to thrive in the modern NBA, as well as a solid shooting touch from the short midrange. But his feel for the game just isn’t all that great (whenever he touches the ball, he’s either looking to score or kick it out to reset the offense, rarely making high-level passes leading to assists), for his solid midrange stroke he doesn’t shoot threes and he doesn’t defend anywhere near as well as he should considering his length and leaping ability.

Maybe 2024-25 will be the year Ayton can put it all together more consistently, as he does have All-Star potential, is still just 26 years old and will still be on a Portland team with next-to-no expectations. But it’s gotten to the point where we’re going to have to see it to believe it when it comes to Ayton starting to reach that higher ceiling.

In his first season with the Blazers, Ayton averaged 16.7 points and 11.1 rebounds per game in 55 appearances. To his credit, after a slow start, Ayton really found his form toward the end of the season, averaging 21.6 points and 12.3 rebounds in his final 20 games. That closing stretch hinted at the higher potential many have seen and continue to harp on since Ayton entered the league in 2018.

Urbina’s middle ranking of Ayton put him between Minnesota Timberwolves center Naz Reid (No. 14) and Dallas Mavericks center Dereck Lively II (No. 16). Former Blazers center Jusuf Nurkic, now a member of the Phoenix Suns, ranked No. 21 on the list.

Ayton was the only Blazers center to make the HoopsHype list. Still, Portland will showcase one of the deepest center rotations in the NBA next season with rookie lottery pick Donovan Clingan, Robert Williams III and Duop Reath backing up Ayton.

This latest list from HoopsHype concluded the site’s summer series of positional rankings. Alongside Ayton’s No. 15 ranking, Jerami Grant ranked No. 13 among power forwards, Deni Avdija ranked No. 24 among small forwards, Anfernee Simons ranked No. 17 among shooting guards and Scoot Henderson ranked No. 29 among point guards.