In today’s NBA, every team needs a king. Right now, for the Phoenix Suns, that crown lies on the head of Devin Booker, and Deandre Ayton is playing second fiddle.
The NBA changes very quickly when trying to find players to give the key to the team’s future success, and the Phoenix Suns are no different.
When Michael Jordan was drafted, fans, media, and even players said it was a big man’s league. We laugh at that now and still should be laughing at ourselves for thinking that we figured this league out.
Over in Houston, the Rockets may have sped up the league by starting a lineup under 6’5” and over in Memphis, you can match what the Grizzlies are doing with about six or seven other teams in the league: a guard and a big man combo, Kobe and Shaq 2.0.
It is easy to say that the Grizzlies (Ja Murrant and Jaren Jackson Jr.), Philadelphia 76ers (Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid), and Dallas Mavericks (Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis) all have championship aspirations with a promising future to win this way. But there is only one thing that all the previous NBA titles had and that is the best player on the court.
When Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson fell victim to the dreaded double Achilles injury, Kawaii Leonard swiped the Finals series away from the Golden State Warriors by remaining the best player on the court.
The 10 years prior (not counting the years LeBron didn’t know his own power yet, losing to Dallas and also the series loss to San Antonio where the Heat were just sick of playing with each other), shows that tandems aren’t always to count on even if you point out the Golden State Warriors. The Warriors had to convince Durant to join to beat LeBron James. LeBron had Kyrie, right? The same Kyrie that now needs Durant as his new king?
The Phoenix Suns have crowned their king and hope he rules for many years to come.
The quickest way for the Phoenix Suns to head in the right direction is to crown their own king, that is Devin Booker, and this has been done years ago. This last season, Booker had many, “Holy crap!” plays, blowing our minds by destroying the competition. There is only room for one player to be crowned for each team, hence the 76ers already ready to give away Ben Simmons, making Joel Embiid king. This is where Deandre Ayton comes in.
When players join Phoenix in the future, they will know that this is Booker’s team and that Ayton played a strong role in being Booker’s second-in-command, a la Kyrie to LeBron, or even his Dwayne Wade to LeBron, again.
I think Ayton may be ok with that. I also think that at some point in the future, Ayton can be the most dominant player on an NBA team. The Suns might have known this going into the 2017 NBA draft, taking Ayton over Doncic, knowing that Ayton can play second fiddle to Booker.
We don’t know what the future will bring, though, so if Booker nor Ayton is the true king of the Suns, then who will it be?