The Phoenix Suns are back to being a one man band for the 2025-26 season, with Devin Booker well and truly leading the way on his own. While he will have some help in the form of Jalen Green and Dillon Brooks - and even Grayson Allen if you choose to believe this stat - the reality is everything will rise and fall with the 28-year-old franchise cornerstone.
Which is exactly what the front office wants to see after a pair of failed seasons going down the "Big 3" route, although Bradley Beal clearly has a grand and delusional vision for his upcoming stint with the L.A. Clippers. It is all about Booker again in Phoenix, and the hope is that in the next few years they can again put a group around him to compete for a championship, as they did in 2021.
Booker is not viewed as a top 10 player in the NBA right now.
With nothing else to talk about at this stage of the offseason, the deliberate leaks of parts of the NBA's regular season schedule has been a real talking point. Kevin O'Connor jumped on his podcast on Yahoo! Sports to break it all down, and in the process Booker appeared to catch a stray as Slightly Biased - who joined him on the show - claimed the Suns will be a bottom three team out West.
While explaining his logic as to why he believes that - and it was hard to disagree with him - he also dropped the bomb that he believes Booker is no longer the "seventh or eighth best player (in the league), and is probably closer to 20 now". After what we saw from Booker - and more importantly the rest of the field - last season, he's not wrong either.
This isn't even the first sign of disrespect Booker has received in the last week, but you have to think it says more about the roster owner Mat Ishbia has put around him than anything else. If Booker had more help - or a two-way superstar in the place of Kevin Durant across the last two seasons - things could have been so much different.
But if you go through the Western Conference only, practically every other roster has at least one player you could argue has been better than Booker in the last 12 month. Suns fans don't care about this of course and they shouldn't - they're ride or die with Booker always and that is the attitude to have here - but it is still a concern when this wasn't even a question a few seasons ago.
He's only been named to an All-NBA team twice in his career, which again points to how difficult it is to stand out when you're one of the best players in the league. But the Durant experience was surely damaging to the alpha mentality Booker used to carry himself with, and it is going to take more than being the man again to bring that back.
Can Devin Booker be a top 10 player in the NBA again? Not only can he, we're saying that he will be for portions of next season. Hopefully when it matters and it leads to the Suns pushing for a play-in spot, but that is not guaranteed. Being overlooked by media members up and down the country though? Sadly the last few years of his career mean that is an acceptable take to have of the player.