While making the playoffs is the ultimate goal for the Phoenix Suns and their fans, Devin Booker being selected to the NBA’s All-Star game would help soften the blow of a missed playoff run.
The Phoenix Suns have missed out on two major parts of being an NBA franchise for a very long time: the playoffs (since 2010), and having an All-Star (Steve Nash in 2012).
The team is finally close enough to the playoffs that fans can taste it (two games out as of January 25), and one major move by James Jones could be enough to put them over the top.
However, fans of the franchise have literally watched Devin Booker grow up before their eyes over these least 4+ seasons, and have known for longer than anyone that he is of All-Star caliber in the NBA.
But because the franchise had been so poorly run and the rosters so poorly constructed, he never got the national attention that he so deserved.
Now that the team though is an actually decently-designed one (albeit with it’s flaws) and they have a general manager in James Jones who appears to have a grasp on how rosters should be built, the days (or years) of the franchise missing the playoffs appear to be numbered.
That said, there is something to be said about having a player on the roster who is an All-Star. That that kind of national recognition is positive attention that truly bad teams rarely get, something that the Phoenix Suns have not had in eight years.
While you know that Booker would give up an All-Star appearance for a playoff one in a heart-beat, you also know he also wants to be an All-Star.
Both in the same season of course would be amazing (if Jones is able to make a splashy move that puts Phoenix over the top by the trade deadline than that is possible), although one is still potentially more likely than the other.