Phoenix Suns Players Who Need to Step Up With Devin Booker Injured

In Game 2’s loss against the New Orleans Pelicans, the Phoenix Suns took another massive blow in seeing Devin Booker hobble off to the locker room midway through the third quarter. He did come back out to the bench, but with full warm up gear on and a not so happy look on his face.

Booker was eventually ruled out for the rest of the game and could only watch as New Orleans tied the series up. With his health now up in the air, and with another hamstring injury at that to bother him, the Suns will need multiple players to step up to fill the gap.

Doing so first starts with the man who might take his spot in the starting lineup. When Book sat out in December with a hamstring injury, we saw Landry Shamet step up to take his minutes and actually play quite well.

Before that, he was struggling heavily and people were starting to wonder if he deserved the minutes. He proved those doubters wrong though, as he averaged over 10 points per contest in that seven game span.

That was also the point in the season where he found his shooting stroke. The Suns will need similar quality minutes from him both on offense and defense in Game 3, or any other contest they might play without Booker.

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Jae Crowder represents another player needing to step up. Jae has been assigned to guard Brandon Ingram, which is a difficult task in itself, but has struggled shooting the ball this series.

Crowder has shot just 2-15 in this first round series thus far,  and has yet to hit a 3-pointer. With Chris Paul and Deandre Ayton playing well in the two games, it’s now Crowder’s turn to have a nice game on the road and help lift his team to a win.

With Shamet potentially sliding into the starting role, that also means more minutes to Cameron Payne and Torrey Craig off the bench. Payne has seen a good chunk of time with Monty staggering CP3 and Book. But Craig promises to be the key player off the bench now to fill the guard rotation’s gaps along the wing.

Hopefully Booker comes back sooner rather than later. But if this is anything like his previous injuries, someone will need to step up in the meantime.

Whoever it is, they have some big shoes to fill. But this team has the talent on its roster to do so and get past the first round even without their All-Star and likely All-NBA team member.