Embiid: Suns' Ayton is 'about to get his ass kicked this year'

Through no fault of his own, No. 1 overall pick Deandre Ayton finds himself a marked man by All-Star center Joel Embiid.

"He's about to get his ass kicked this year," Embiid said during an appearance on ESPN's The Jump as part of Friday's Media Day for the Philadelphia 76ers.

He later mentioned how he felt disrespected when ESPN's Chauncey Billups said the Arizona product reminded him of Embiid during this year's draft coverage, and how Ayton was "a rim-protector who can guard the pick-and-roll."

"He's going to be good," Embiid added of Ayton. "But when you talk about, 'He looks like Joel Embiid,' I play on both sides of the court. I think I'm a good offensive player, good defensive player. I do it on both ends of the floor.

"I watched him play and he's got a lot of work to do. But he's got a lot of potential. He's going to be really good."

Billups' analysis prompted Embiid to send out the following tweets during draft night:

When made aware of Embiid's posts at the time, Ayton didn't let the comments rattle him.

"When you're in the league, you wouldn't want nobody else to compare you as somebody coming up," Ayton told Yahoo Sports. "I would do the same thing. But it's whatever.

"I'm a competitor. I play both ends of the floor as strong as I can, as hard as I can. It's a tweet. It's social media."