Fans want it, the franchise wants it, but as the Phoenix Suns race to the worst record in the NBA, will Devin Booker allow himself to be shut down?
The Suns aren’t any good right now. They need help. The best way to acquire long-term help is through the draft, and in particular the first overall selection in which they can select Arizona center DeAndre Ayton, a player compared to Shaquille O’Neal, David Robinson, Patrick Ewing, and even Hakeem Olajuwon. Every single person involved in the Valley of the Suns, from the fans to the players themselves, know that losing out (or at least losing more than Memphis, Atlanta, Orlando, Dallas, and a few others) is the best way to give themselves the top shot at landing the first overall pick.
Right now Devin Booker is hurt with a sprained right hand, an injury that is bad to the point that if he does not wear a splint on his dominant and shooting hand, he is not allowed to play. The problem with this, for him at least, is that he cannot shoot very well while wearing that splint as the contraption affects the feel of the ball on his fingers.
Case and point is his 10-34 shooting over his last two games after missing the Charlotte game on Saturday March 10. His 3-18 (16.7%) shooting line against Utah on March 15, w his second worst shooting game of the season ahead of only a 2-14 (14.3%) night against Milwaukee on January 22.
Phoenix Suns
Should the Suns’ season still be young, management may have shut him down for a week already to allow him to be available for the stretch run. There may not have even been a question about Booker playing or not and he would have sat for 3-5 games without hesitation until his hand was fully healed.
However at this point the season is all but over. There are only 11 games remaining on the schedule and Phoenix holds a slim half game lead over the Memphis Grizzlies in the reverse standings. Shutting Booker down for only 3-5 games doesn’t make much sense now because he would have to work to come back. Suns management wants to lose and bringing Booker back gives the team a significantly better opportunity to win. Shutting Booker down for the season allows him to fully recover without fear of a set-back, not risking pushing his return which may cause the injury to worsen or linger.
It iobviously too helps Phoenix to lose.
There is also the option of not shutting Booker down for the remainder of the schedule in it’s entirety as there is a slight chance that the Suns can lock up the number one seed with a couple of games remaining on the schedule. Should the Grizzlies win just two more games the rest of the way (even though they are attempting to lose just the same as the Suns, they have the tenth most difficult schedule remaining with one game each against the Lakers, Sacramento, Charlotte, and Detroit) and Phoenix loses out, then Booker could hypothetically work to come back for the final 2-3 games with the worst seed already locked up and help the team (hopefully) win a game or two and finish the season off on a strong note.
All of this, however, is of course contingent upon Devin Booker being willing to allow this to happen on any level. Like any competitive person, he doesn’t want to be shut down. He wants to compete. He doesn’t want to have a stigma attached to him that he is soft or accepts losing. He wants to play for the name on the front of the jersey; the smattering of fans in the stands; and the players whom he shares a locker room.
If the team approaches Booker requesting that they’d like to shut him down indefinitely (I think it’s only fair to keep the end of the season door open in case they are able to lock up the number one seed in the reverse standings at some point before the final game) and he refuses – get his butt back on the court. Hell, he obviously can’t play very well with that splint so it’s not like he is helping the team all that much at the moment. He can demand to continue to play but wear the brace and Jay Triano can simply limit his minutes in the middle part of the game resting him and protecting his hand by not over-playing him, thus giving the bench the chance to fall behind significantly enough to keep the losing in line.
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In the end, Booker understands that losing as many of these final games the rest of the way is the best way to give them a chance at drafting another potential franchise player this summer. Booker wants to play, but being that the team has already been eliminated from the playoffs, and this injury might prevent him from both playing at an optimal level as well as possibly run the risk of further injuring his most important hand, it seems entirely prudent to allow them to rest him and finish (at least the majority of) the season on the bench.
The question remains, will he allow them to shut him down?