Deandre Ayton Suggesting His Early Season Struggles Were Due To Sleeping On An Air Mattress Is Some Next Level Spinzone
Deandre Ayton says that sleeping on an air mattress earlier in the season could have contributed to his early season struggles
“My body wasn’t just my body. People forget the humane difference of me adjusting to everything. That included something as routine as getting proper sleep. Just being comfortable in waking up. I didn’t have a bed for quite some time. I was on an air mattress. Just trying to figure this out.” (Via http://bit.ly/49TH3Xu)
OK, on the surface this seems a little ridiculous. We've heard of some crazy spinzones over the years as to why a player might be struggling, but I can't say I've ever heard the reason being that they were sleeping on an air mattress. When that guy is the foundation piece you got back in your Damian Lillard trade, it's not exactly something that gives you a ton of confidence as a Blazers fan, especially from a guy who has been in the league since 2018-19 and in Year 2 of a 4/132M contract extension.
So while the internet takes their swings to clown on Ayton for an excuse like that, on some level I buy it. Everyone knows a messed up sleep schedule can really screw you up. That's true of normal people who have a normal job/life, and it's especially true I would imagine of professional athletes. One thing you'll never hear me do is discredit the importance of sleep, as long as it doesn't come on a live stream of course.
My question is more, how the hell does anyone, let alone a professional athlete go more than 1 or 2 days on an air mattress? Forget for a second that air mattresses in 2024 are WAY better than they used to be too. You can get some that are actually pretty impressive/comfortable/give proper support with the click of a button on Amazon. If you're a 7fter, I imagine your bed situation is pretty important, so how is that not one of the first things you handle in your new city?
Ayton was traded to POR on September 27th. The Blazers' first game of the season was on October 25th. Hell, their first preseason game was October 10th. On what planet is that not enough time to get a real bed? Even if you don't know where the furniture stores are in your new city, the internet exists. One would think you would want all that shit settled by the time you got to the regular season, so I'd love to know what Ayton was thinking by the time he got to like October 15th and was still apparently sleeping on an air mattress. How do the Blazers not have someone on their staff to make sure their players are taken care of and settled? Very weird.
As someone who has moved to multiple states over the course of my life at every stage of life, I can understand how stressful a situation it is. But not once, no matter how broke I was at the time, was there ever a chance I was going multiple weeks without a mattress. I can see having a box spring/mattress and no bed frame while you figure your shit out/save money, we've all been there. Sure it's not the best look that you're on the floor, but when you're young and broke it's the last of your concerns. You just want a bed. As you get older, you may have a little more coin in your pocket and you start to live like an actual adult, which includes having real furniture. I've found you can survive without a couch and table and all that shit, but a bed is usually Day 1 stuff.
What I don't understand is let's say Ayton thought he didn't have enough time to figure all that out. OK, I'll play along. Why wouldn't you just go to a hotel? Again, this dude makes $32M a year. Go hang out at the Ritz or something until a bed can be delivered to your apartment. Also, did he not have a bed while playing with the Suns? Nobody thought to maybe put that in a truck and ship it to POR? If he had time to pack/buy an air mattress, how it is possible he didn't have the time to pack/buy a real one? It's all very confusing.
For the Blazers, the entire Ayton experiment isn't exactly off to the greatest start, even now that he apparently has a bed. Not terrible, but more "meh" than anything else. He is what he is at this point, he's going to give you 15/11 on around 58% shooting while not really being a difference maker. In a season where Rob Williams missed the entire year, I figured it would have been a great opportunity for Ayton to make a leap, and it never really happened. That has to be somewhat concerning moving forward considering he's one of the main pieces of the Blazers rebuild.