Devin Booker has been here before. And at the same time, he hasn’t.
In a decade with the Phoenix Suns, he’s had 126 different teammates. He’s about to have another handful added to that list, and many more if he sticks around through his new two-year extension that runs through 2030.
One of them, Kevin Durant, was traded, marking a moment of extreme significance that cannot be ignored.
But first, there were plenty of cases being made that the Suns shouldn’t have Booker stick around to see that list expand any further. Many believe the Suns should trade him to fully detonate a “blow-it-up” restart. The cases have nothing to do with Booker himself, and instead on Phoenix’s dire position from a roster construction standpoint, its poor probability of reassembling another contender around Booker for the second time.
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The Suns have shut down that notion, and Booker’s commitment to seeing this through is reflected by accepting the $145 million add-on.
To present both sides, here is the argument for why that is the wrong move: not the extension but the decision to indeed see this through.
Let me present two different player examples from one franchise. Stick with me here.
When Durant left the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2016, a 28-year-old Russell Westbrook led a roster where its second-best player was either a young Steven Adams or young Victor Oladipo. The result was 47 wins and a first-round exit. OKC responded by trading for Paul George, giving up an on-the-rise Oladipo and recent rookie Domantas Sabonis.
A fresh-off-his-MVP season Westbrook with George now by his side didn’t change too much, even though both would make All-NBA. The Thunder went from 47 victories to 48 and were bounced again in its first playoff series.
The next year in the 2018-19 season featured the best supporting cast for those two and the best season of George’s career. He finished third in MVP voting at the age of 28, finishing First Team All-NBA with Westbrook on the third team. All that was worth was one additional win to 49 and the infamous Damian Lillard wave ended OKC’s season in the first round for the third straight year.
In hindsight, fortune favored the Thunder, because George requested a trade and set in motion a legendary haul from the Los Angeles Clippers that included 2024-25 MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and one of a few draft picks that became All-Star guard Jalen Williams. Westbrook responded to this news by also wanting out and OKC got Chris Paul plus two first-round picks. George and Westbrook have each only received one All-NBA nod since.
For as much as the Thunder are endlessly praised for the George trade, it was not one they wanted to make. George forced his way not only out of OKC, but to L.A. specifically. By doing so, OKC escaped the first-round purgatory it would have likely been stuck in the range of through the rest of the Westbrook-George era and into an all-out rebuild that got them an NBA title with more cracks at it to come. Never forget how much luck factors into these things. Never.
This is relevant to the 28-year-old Booker because the Thunder were saved from themselves. Is this what Phoenix needs?
History tells us how a reset around Devin Booker could go for the Suns
Let’s rewind three years, before George bounces. Westbrook was surrounded by good, young talent on those teams. The timing didn’t quite align with when those youngsters got better, and once it was going to, OKC pulled the trigger on trading it for George. Even if the Thunder kept allowing Adams, Oladipo and Sabonis develop, is that a contender to go through the rest of Westbrook’s prime with?
Hard to say. Injuries derailed Oladipo’s career after he blossomed in Indiana while Sabonis is one of the best bigs in the league, and Adams’ value in those OKC years is well admired.
But either that ensemble or the one featuring George feels like a pretty good result of a dice roll to a “pivot and reload” style of the three years after Durant left. And that’s all it got the Thunder. A few one-and-done playoff appearances before getting incredibly fortunate to rebuild the way they did.
The Suns are about to take their turn at rolling that dice. Is their recent influx of young talent comparable to what Westbrook had? Could they later on find Booker one more outstanding running mate like George was for Westbrook? How much would it matter if they did? Enough to truly be in the hunt?
There is precedent for franchises sticking by and with their guy, as OKC would have done. To go to the extreme ends of both spectrums, Dwyane Wade after winning a ring at the age of 24 stuck around in Miami with some awful rosters before a superteam came to him, while Lillard awkwardly stayed in Portland three years too long before finally leaving.
Booker’s situation feels a lot closer to Lillard’s than it does Wade’s.
But that doesn’t mean the Suns should trade him.
Any robotic analysis suggesting the Suns must get rid of Booker like it is their only choice operates under naive reasoning that suggests Phoenix will greatly increase its odds at resetting by doing so.
Replenishing draft assets and even using them properly does not always equal contending.
It was only four seasons ago that the hot young team lauded for assembling a terrific young core was the Memphis Grizzlies. Since the rise began, they have won one playoff series and got mauled this go-around in Year 5 after firing their praised head coach before the season even ended. Look at all the successful draft picks made by the New Orleans Pelicans, how much rightful buzz was around them after their playoff debut in 2022 against Phoenix and how they now find themselves in the basement of the West.
All of that is before factoring in what Booker means to the organization and the city. That matters. It does to the fans and it does to the franchise. It obviously does to him. Could you imagine seeing him crying on the bench in Phoenix for the first time in another jersey during his tribute video like Luka Doncic did in Dallas?
The incessant need to remove emotion from the equation does not apply here. It instead holds weight in the decision, because some of that emotion probably affects if you still believe in Booker.
If you do to the fullest, that version of him you’re picturing can carry Phoenix to the promised land if the front office builds the right team around him. He is still just 28 years old, and unless the Suns have a horseshoe handy it can stick where the sun (sorry) don’t shine for the blow-it-up outcome (like OKC did), it is asinine to believe there is even a half-decent chance the theoretical return in a Booker deal would eventually yield a player anywhere near his level.
So here’s why I ask if you believe in Booker or not.
Four years ago, Booker was the best player on an NBA Finals team in the most competitive iteration of the championship round in a decade, one that legitimately could have gone either way. Two years ago, Booker put together one of the greatest 10-game runs in postseason history, the type of individual playoff moment that suggested true greatness was inbound shortly.
It was not.
The last two seasons have been inexcusable. A player we have watched improve every single year stagnated, and in some cases, regressed. An incredibly malleable basketball player got too rickety and rattled through all the bumps in the road on offense. It would have been worth a shot to leave a Team USA jersey hanging up in his locker pregame to see if wearing it would get him back on track on defense.
For all the talk about wanting to be a leader, Booker was one — but during the most cataclysmic three-year period in franchise history.
And now it’s all on him.
No more Tyson Chandler and P.J. Tucker teaching him the ropes. No more Chris Paul and Jae Crowder showing him the ropes. No more Durant using those ropes to lead by example. For the first time in our decade of watching this confident kid from Grand Rapids etched with the toughness from Moss Point become a man from Phoenix, it’s all on him.
Do you believe in him?
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