The Phoenix Suns are a completely different team than the one that drafted Devin Booker in 2015-16, and yet he is still the face of the franchise. He has taken his lumps while playing for the organization, watching them go from Western Conference bottom feeders, to success story of the NBA’s bubble, and finally NBA finalists.
All of this and still only 26-years-old, meaning in theory he hasn’t even entered his prime yet. We got a glimpse into what this could look like during the postseason, with Booker going nuclear en route to helping the Suns become the only team to take two games off the eventual champion Denver Nuggets all playoffs.
Another jump forward is surely on the horizon, and the Suns are counting on this to happen if they want to win a championship.
With Chris Paul having now left town, it is on Booker to take all of the experience he got playing with the “Point God”, and put it towards building a winner with Kevin Durant and the recently added Bradley Beal. The offensive engine of this group is going to run superbly, but it will take more than that to be truly successful.
The goals of Booker for next season then may appear lofty, but they are also necessary if this group wants to arrive at its final destination. He has been linked to Jayson Tatum and even Jamal Murray since entering the league, and a stellar 2023-24 could truly set him apart in that conversation as the best of the three.
3 goals for the Phoenix Suns’ Devin Booker for the 2023-24 season.
3. Avoid major injury.
This sounds obvious, because after all no player who steps on a court plans on getting injured. But the importance of Booker to avoid this if he can, and generally this is out of the control of a player, is two-fold.
The first reason Booker needs to stay healthy is simply because he has spent his first eight seasons having avoided the kind of setback that has seen him miss a significant amount of time. He is built like a James Harden type, durable and capable of surviving the rigours of a regular season.
Booker will like all player miss some contests, but for nearly a decade now he has been good for nearly 70 games a season for five out of his eight years in the league. All it takes is that first major setback to have a disastrous knock-on effect, and the longer Booker can survive that happening, the better he is going to be for the Suns.
Even more importantly though, Durant is 34-years-old and has had his fair share of injuries and surgeries at this point. This came to a head when he tore his achilles in the 2018-19 NBA Finals, forcing him to miss an entire season. Durant hasn’t been the same since, and hasn’t played over 55 games in a season either.
With some of the freak injuries he’s dealt with in his career, Kevin Durant was asked whether he felt cursed.
— Gerald Bourguet (@GeraldBourguet) March 30, 2023
“Hell nah. I mean, look at my life. Somebody cursed ME?” pic.twitter.com/qMiNQLXEsr
He cannot be relied upon in the same way Booker can, and the same is becoming true of Beal. Now 30 himself, he had wrist issues to begin last season and is starting to pick up the kind of knocks that Booker has to this point avoided. You can be sure Durant and Beal are going to miss a fair few games next season, which is why it is crucial that Booker plays as many as possible.
3 goals for the Phoenix Suns’ Devin Booker for the 2023-24 season.
2. Be top 10 in the NBA in assists.
This is extremely important, because the role of Booker is going to change now that Beal and Durant have joined himself and Deandre Ayton. It may be that Cam Payne is still technically the starting point guard come opening night next season. New head coach Frank Vogel seems to like him and the organization might not get additional adequate cover in free agency.
Even if that does happen, it is unlikely Payne will close games. Even when on the court he will often be told to give the ball to Booker, and get out of the way. This new playmaking role is one which should excite not only the player and his teammates, but also fans as well.
We’ve seen Booker do this before, but he moved away from it when Paul was on the roster. With Durant capable of doing whatever he wants offensively, he too is going to want to see Booker get the team into their sets, for Durant to then finish off a large number of their plays. The same is true for Beal, who isn’t really a true point guard himself.
Booker averaged 5.5 assists last season, which was fine. Twice in his career, between 2018-2020, he posted 6.8 and 6.5 per game. We know he is capable, and this will be the first time since then that he will be expected to do more of the playmaking, only this time, he is going to have the level of teammate he could have only dreamt about before.
Last season, Damian Lillard of the Portland Trail Blazers finished 10th in the league in assists at 7.3 per game. This was tied with Domantas Sabonis of the Sacramento Kings, a fabulous passer, but somebody who is not even a guard. There is no reason Booker can’t crack the top 10 next year, and it should be goal for him. To achieve this would be huge for the Suns.
3 goals for the Phoenix Suns’ Devin Booker for the 2023-24 season.
1. Win the MVP award.
This is a big ask, the biggest of Booker’s career to date. Winning an MVP award is exceptionally hard. Tatum has never done it, and the likes of James Harden and Russell Westbrook only managed it once. Even Booker’s teammate Durant, one of the best players this century, only has one himself.
But if Booker wants to assume the mantle of the next Kobe Bryant, as both he and Tatum have jostled for, this is the separator. Booker’s case is actually easier to map out than it should be, and it begins with being the best player on his own team by virtue of Durant not playing enough games to get serious consideration.
That shouldn’t be the goal for Durant anyway, he is all about saving himself for the postseason and championships at this point of his career. If the Suns can make this superteam come together seamlessly, it will be because Booker connected all of the dots en route to the Suns having one of the best records in the NBA.
If he can average close to 30 points per game and have a career high in assists in say 72 games played for one of the best teams in the league, that’s a fantastic start. He is a career 35.6 percent shooter from deep, so nudging that number close to the magical 40 percent would go a long way to helping too.
If Booker can also have the best defensive season of his career under new head coach Frank Vogel, then what is stopping him from achieving this goal? Remember when the Suns went 8-0 in the bubble, and it was a preview for their finals run? Perhaps we just saw Booker’s audition for league MVP, with that incredible playoff performance of 2022-23. This is hard, but not impossible.