Panthers linebacker Thomas Davis said this week that he expects to play a reduced role in the team’s defense during the 2018 season and he won’t wait around for that role to grow even smaller in 2019.
Davis told Brooke Cersosimo of NFL Media that 2018 will be his final season as an NFL player.
Davis joined the Panthers as a first-round pick in 2005 and made one start as a rookie before moving up the depth chart in his second year. He’s started all but three games that he’s played for Carolina since the start of the 2006 season [url=http://www.billscheapstore.com/patrick-dimarco-jersey-cheap]Patrick DiMarco Jersey[/url] , but missed all but nine games from 2009-2011 because he tore his ACL three times.
He returned to play in strong form, making second team All-Pro in 2013 and the first team in 2015. He was also named the Walter Payton Man of the Year in 2014 in recognition of his off-field work.
Deandre Ayton spent Wednesday with the Phoenix Suns with the feeling that this was the start of a beautiful relationship.
The 7-foot-1, 250-pound center went through what he said would be his only pre-draft workout and expressed supreme confidence that the Suns will use the No. 1 overall pick to select him.
”I know I’m going No. 1,” he told reporters.
Not that the Suns have assured him of that, he’s just that confident that the team won’t pass on his combination of size, strength, athleticism and shooting touch.
”Nobody told me,” he said. ”That’s just me. I think I deserve that. I’ve worked hard.”
It would be a comfortable fit for Ayton, who was born in the Bahamas and moved to the Phoenix area during high school. He said most of his family now lives here. Ayton played his one year of college basketball a couple of hours down Interstate 10 at the University of Arizona.
”Everybody knows us now,” he said. ”This is our second home so we just feel welcome, and it would be a blessing if I become the No. 1 pick and stay here and make this home.”
Ayton said teaming with young Suns star Devin Booker would be ”Shaq and Kobe 2-point-0.”
”We could really make something happen in Phoenix,” he said. ”We could really have a spark and start a winning legacy.”
There hasn’t been much winning in Phoenix lately. The Suns have missed the playoffs eight years in a row and had the NBA’s worst record last season at 21-61 [url=http://www.saintscheapstore.com/patrick-robinson-jersey-cheap]Patrick Robinson Jersey[/url] , second-worst in franchise history.
But there is a young core of talent and most of those players, including Booker and Josh Jackson, watched what Ayton described as ”a pretty intense” individual workout.
For nearly an hour, Suns coach Igor Kokoskov and his staff put Ayton through a series of game situations, as much as possible given the fact no other players were on the floor.
”It was everything that we expected form Deandre,” general manager Ryan McDonough said. ”Obviously we’ve watched him closely at Arizona and we’ve scouted him heavily in person in games, at practice and on film. He showed us what we expected to see.”
McDonough said ”it’s pretty rare” to find such a player.
”I think this is my 16th draft in the NBA,” McDonough said, ”and you can probably count on one hand the number of guys with his size, athleticism, footwork, balance [url=http://www.falconscheapstore.com/julio-jones-jersey-cheap]Julio Jones Jersey[/url] , touch. It’s a unique package.”
He was particularly impressed with Ayton’s outside shooting touch.
”We knew he was big and strong and athletic and moved well at that size, had good length, had great hands,” McDonough said, ”but to see him make shot after shot in a workout in different scenarios.”
And he’s just 19 years old.
The Suns plan other workouts with candidates for the No. 1 pick later this week. The group won’t include Luka Doncic, who is still playing in Europe.
Phoenix is not tipping its hand, but Ayton will be hard to pass up.
”The strength of our team right now are young perimeter players, led by Devin Booker, Josh Jackson and T.J. Warren,” McDonough said. ”We’ve been looking for a center to kind of anchor our team offensively and defensively. We think Deandre has that kind of potential. … He’s certainly a unique player and a unique talent that I think would fit in great with the rest of our roster.”
Ayton averaged 20.1 points and 11.6 rebounds in his one season at Arizona. He brushed aside questions about his defense.
”I don’t think that’s a weakness,” he said. ”I haven’t had the opportunity to really guard any bigs in college. I was always on the perimeter with the guards.”
Still, he pointed out [url=http://www.seahawkscheapstore.com/k.j.-wright-jersey-cheap]K.J. Wright Jersey[/url] , he averaged 2.3 blocked shots per game.
On offense, Ayton said, ”I can score inside and out.”
”There will be a lot of mismatches because if I guard them they have to guard me at the end of the day,” he said. ”I can score, I can pick and pop, I can pick and roll, I can put the ball on the ground, rebound, push the ball. It’s an open floor now. Nobody is really double-teaming or triple-teaming.”
He said there is no current player on which he patterns his game. But he mentioned two pretty good ones from the past.
”Kevin Garnett, his intensity on both ends of the floor, how he changes the game, rebounding. From offense to defense [url=http://www.seahawkscheapstore.com/rees-odhiambo-jersey-cheap]Rees Odhiambo Jersey[/url] , him starting the pick and roll, stuff like that,” Ayton said, ”how he’s so vocal with his teammates. And Hakeem Olajuwon, with his footwork down low, I try to really pick up a lot of stuff with those guys.”
Ayton called himself the most competitive player in the draft. He said there’s none of the laid-back attitude that’s a trademark of his homeland.
”I left at age 12, so I got a little Americanized with the competitive level,” he said.
Ayton planned to get together with Booker and other Suns players to watch Game 3 of the NBA Finals on Wednesday night.
—
[url=http://www.basketballofficialauthentic.com/nba-jerseys/brooklyn-nets/dzanan-musa-jersey]Dzanan Musa Jersey[/url]
You have performed a great job on this article. It's very precise and highly qualitative. You've managed to make it readable and easy to read. You have some real writing talent. Thank you so much.
dubai exposition universelle 2020
the costs of which will be relayed to you when our specialist contacts you, depending on your personal situation, location and circumstances. Claiming Possession of Property
what type of dissertation? you are finding we provide best dissertaion experts UK so student can get their research effectively and efficiently by solved professionally