It couldn’t have been much worse for the Phoenix Suns. When a new season starts, you get excited. Anything is possible. The world is your oyster. Well, the oyster the Suns cracked open was a 21-0 run by the Portland Trail Blazers to start the game. Phoenix got blitzed, and it was never able to recover.
Nobody on the Suns played particularly well. Devin Booker did his thing. He always does, to some degree. But the rest of the Suns didn’t bring it. The Blazers punched them in the mouth. It may seem drastic, but if we’re in the market for instant reactions (that might be overreactions), Booker may have less help than he’s had since the Eric Bledsoe era.
On paper, the Suns have talent. But when you actually take a step back and assess things, this is not a roster built to help Booker win basketball games. They don’t have a No. 2 option. A true No. 2 option.
The Suns may have less talent around Devin Booker than during the Eric Bledsoe era
Matt Ishbia blew the best team Booker ever had in order to trade for Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal. That team failed.
Now, with no picks and few young pieces, the Suns have been left to start from square one. Last year, they made it work. But their season opener against the Blazers may have been a brutal taste of reality.
As the rest of the league improves, the Suns are stuck. Dillon Brooks is their second-best player. Miles Bridges. Jalen Green. Collin Gillespie.
All of those guys are fine players. Good role players, even. But none are built to be the second-best guy on a truly competitive roster. On a team that has playoff hopes.
Booker has been one of the best shooting guards in the league for nearly a decade now. A killer mentality. An elite jumper. A monster mid-range game. He’s a top-notch scorer.
Unfortunately, he has a terrible track record of playing with some bad teams. Especially in his early years. For many years at the beginning of his career, Bledsoe was his second-best player.
Now, this isn’t meant to be a shot at Bledsoe. He was a pretty good player. But if he was the second-best player on your team, it probably wasn’t going to go too well. And in Phoenix, it didn’t.
Booker didn’t make the playoffs until the sixth year of his career. By that point, the Suns had picked first overall (DeAndre Ayton), traded for Chris Paul, and landed Mikal Bridges and Cameron Johnson through the draft.
They had found a way to build a great team around Booker. A team that made the Finals. But when they failed to win it all, things went downhill. And now, Booker is left with not much to work with… all over again.
Booker is stuck in NBA purgatory all over again. If Game 1 of 82 is any indication (again, the time for overreactions), the Bledsoe years may be back for Booker.
Add us as a preferred source on Google