Devin Booker gets last laugh on Dallas Mavericks after Luka Doncic trade

Although the Phoenix Suns are very much on the outside of the seismic Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers trade that is going to dominate the landscape for weeks to come, that doesn't mean this news is going to pass them by altogether. Their pursuits ahead of the trade deadline might have been more Jimmy Butler driven, but this deal was not good news in The Valley.

Whereas before the Dallas Mavericks made what looks to be one of the biggest mistakes in the history of any franchise you could have argued the Suns were as good as the Lakers, that is now no longer the case. Not that the Lakers are contenders right away - that is still to be decided - but it is now another rival leaving Phoenix in the dust out West. Of course it would be the Lakers.

Devin Booker still managed to have some fun with the news.

Painful as it is to admit, there is no doubt that Doncic has had the Suns' number in the past. Most notably in the postseason, when he showed several times that he is the better player than Devin Booker. Not that Suns fans would have traded their own guy for Doncic, although with how this all went down they could have offered Bradley Beal, Bol Bol and an El Valle jersey and gotten him.

Times like these are when people with more patience than sense - and in search of a viral "banger" of a tweet - go back through the timelines of people and organizations to pile more misery on them. Booker didn't have to look very hard - the work had already been done for him by others - but this was funny.

Although he has come in for criticism for not being aggressive enough in trying to lead his team to more wins this season, there are few better trash talkers and competitors than Booker. Like Suns fans he obviously remembers being roasted by Doncic, the Mavericks and their fans after they were booted from the playoffs by them in 2022.

They won the series and deserved to have a good time with it, but it is clear Booker has a long memory when it comes to this stuff. If you come at him, you better be sure it doesn't backfire down the road. Which it clearly has, as any Mavericks fan would have gladly lost that series if it meant they weren't living this current nightmare scenario and with Anthony Davis on his way to Dallas.

When the dust finally settles on this one, Booker needs to get back to being the player the Suns need him to be. Missing out on All-Star selection this season not only hurts, it is an indication of how much his stock has fallen with fans and coaches alike. There could be no better way to remind everybody of who you are than knocking off the Lakers with Doncic in tow at the next available opportunity.