Devin Booker claims unexpected Suns player is team's most consistent (he's right)

The Phoenix Suns might be back to full healthy, but in some ways Wednesday's loss to the Brooklyn Nets showed fans that the shortcomings of last season have not gone away. Playing on their home court - one night after impressively hammering the Los Angeles Lakers - the Suns fell 127-117 to a Nets team missing their best player in Cam Thomas.

This game did feature former fan favorite Cameron Johnson, while there was also a rare Ben Simmons sighting. Kevin Durant did finish with seven turnovers though, an area of real concern last season under previous head coach, Frank Vogel. Point guard Tyus Jones was brought in to take care of the basketball this summer, and so far he has largely succeeded.

In fact he's the most consistent player on this roster so far this season.

That's according to Devin Booker - who actually made that proclamation in the wake of the Suns' big win over the Lakers earlier this week - in a game when Jones only had eight points and six assists. But to watch Jones play in that game, and any other so far this season, is to see a guy who rarely gets it wrong with the ball in hand.

He knows when to set up his teammates - which is more often than not - while also calling his own number in the flow of the game. There's a reason he was called the steal of the offseason, and it goes way beyond the traditional numbers. Not that he's struggled in that area either, the 11.1 points and 6.8 assists per game both currently rank as the second best marks of his career.

Shooting 36.7 percent from deep - bang on his career average - is also an acceptable number for a guy who gets enough open looks next to Booker, Durant and Bradley Beal to keep defenders honest, although Jones will likely feel there is room for improvement in that area as well.

Booker's comments came at the right time too - as although the loss to the Nets was disappointing - Jones finished with an eye-popping 12 assists. The next highest on the team? Booker's four, which again illustrates the importance of having a point guard who knows how and when to get the ball to his teammates in the right spots.

If you go back and watch every Suns' game so far this season - that five game losing streak is tough to sit through again - you'll see that Booker is also correct. The play of Jones hasn't come close to the highs of Durant or Booker, but Durant missed over two weeks with a calf strain, while Booker was outscored on two occasions by Josh Okogie on that awful 1-3 Western road trip.

Booker's highs have far surpassed Jones, but the lowest have gone below his teammate as well. If you look around the rest of the roster - and take health into account which rules out Durant and Beal - there's no serious threat to Jones in this area. Rookie Ryan Dunn started the season off on fire, but has cooled significantly.

Sixth man Royce O'Neale might actually be the closest in terms of consistency - he's been everything the group needs off the bench - but he doesn't set the tone and the table for everybody else. Booker then is correct on this - and although that's a great sign in November - the Suns need one of their three stars to take this mantle from Jones if they're to go on a deep playoff run this season.