Ranking the 6 worst Suns starters of the Devin Booker era

2. Alex Len

Every time you question the toughness or accountability of Deandre Ayton, you thank your lucky stars that Alex Len is no longer the man in the middle for the Suns. Before arguing that Len is still in the league 10 years after being drafted (which is worth celebrating), consider the circumstances with which the Suns brought him in.

Drafted in 2013, Len would start 140 of a whopping 335 games for the franchise, in which time he averaged 7.2 points and 6.6 rebounds. Len was given every opportunity to be a success for the team, but it just never happened for him. To make matters worse, Len was a fifth overall pick, although in his defence, that 2013 draft was an awful one.

You could even spin this and say that Len was so bad, that it helped the Suns to eventually get Booker when they did. That was hardly the game plan when he was drafted however, and in his best season, again Booker’s rookie campaign of 2015-16, Len averaged nine points and 7.6 rebounds in 46 starts.

He was only 22-years-old at that time, and although young and raw, this was his third season in the league. Typically you want to be seeing something by that stage, but there was little to point to other than Len using his big body to get boards and score some points. Both Jackson and Chriss, two players with more talent than Len, were never even given that long to try and succeed.

Yet the Ukrainian was somehow given five seasons and nearly $20 million to try and become something. He didn’t. The extra sting in the tail here is that there was probably a time (think when Bismack Biyombo was having a moment with the Suns) when the team could have used him off the bench in an extremely limited capacity. A dud lottery pick and a dud player for the franchise.