The Phoenix Suns’ perpetual roster turnover must end

How the Phoenix Suns can leave this viscous cycle

Like the Sun Devils, the Suns need to build a collection of good  players who work well together if they are going to beat teams with superior talent.

The emphasis on good  in that last sentence is important because no matter how long teams keep players around, it doesn’t help if they’re awful.

Out of the 55 Booker teammates not currently on the Suns roster, a whopping 31 of them are not currently on any  NBA roster.

That’s over 56%!

I’m not exactly a mathematician, but I’m pretty sure that is more than half.

Phoenix Suns

Remember, this isn’t the statistic of a veteran at the end of his career who bounced around from team to team over more than a decade.

This isn’t the statistic for Jamal Crawford.

Booker is a 22-year-old who has played only four NBA seasons, all with the same team.

Devin has garnered criticism for playing too much “hero-ball,” especially late in the season, but after looking at the talent around him – or lack thereof – can you blame him for this mentality from time to time?

There’s another, often under-appreciated, yet vitally important point about roster turnover: it substantially decreases fan interest.

To circle back to the college basketball analogy, fans moan about the one-and-done phenomena, and this the primary reason why.

Fans’ number one priority is to win, but the suppressed rational side of their brain knows doing so year in and year out is largely unrealistic.

Therefore, support is more than just wins and losses to most fans. They want to feel a connection  to the players on their favorite team, and most people can’t form that connection in less than a year’s time.