While owner Mat Ishbia is convinced the Suns are going to grind their way to success, it will quickly become clear that this roster doesn't have the juice to contend in a comically loaded Western Conference. I agree with Ishbia that the Suns will be better than the public perception, but am not deluded enough to talk myself into this team as a championship contender. Hence, as is always the case when middling teams have no clear path but one star player on the roster... Devin Booker will be tossed in trade talks all year long.
Right now, it doesn't appear the Suns have any desire to part with him... and it should stay that way, throughout this season and future seasons, too. That won't stop teams from calling, of course, and Kevin O'Connor of Yahoo Sports recently said, "We're gonna see multiple teams make massive trade offers for Devin Booker," naming the Pistons and the Spurs specifically.
Suns need to ignore the outside pressure to trade Devin Booker
The apparent pressure on the Suns to deal Booker will make sense, at least on the surface: If things get ugly for the Phoenix Suns next year, there won't be respite in the NBA Draft Lottery, as the Suns don't own their 2026 first-round pick. And if the team is not contending, and also doesn't have the draft assets to build a young core, then why not trade Booker while he still holds monster value?
And my response to that is, simply: If this team can't figure out how to build consistently competent rosters around Devin Booker, what on Earth makes you think they'll be able to build competent rosters without Devin Booker? Getting back a first-round pick in 2026 should be a priority this season; it doesn't have to come at the cost of the best player in modern franchise history, I promise.
Booker has been the one constant in the past decade of turmoil (and very brief flashes of success) for the Suns. He's the one thing fans can point to and say, "We did that right, no questions asked," even if the current leadership group wasn't around when he was actually drafted. Does Mat Ishbia want to be remembered as the guy who traded Devin Booker?
Probably not. I surely wouldn't be. I don't really want to be remembered at all, for what it's worth. Sounds scary.
Booker, who has three years left on his contract, has never indicated that he wants to get out of dodge... and that's just as important a reason to not deal Booker as anything on the court.
Booker loves Phoenix, and that counts for something
We have gotten so used to players changing teams that when someone says they love a city and have no interest in moving, no one listens! But Devin Booker has been through the ringer with the Suns and now entering his eleventh season (heavens, I'm old) he's had ample opportunity to whine his way off the Suns and onto the roster of a more stable franchise. He hasn't done that. Quite the opposite — he's embraced the desert and the numerous iterations of teams he's played on without much more than a peep.
I think teams underestimate the cultural — and on-court — impact that shipping out a star has on a franchise. Even if, somewhat miraculously, the Suns made out well by hypothetically trading Booker... they would still have traded Booker. For a lot of fans, that would be enough for a breakup with the team. We saw what happened in Dallas, and the Suns probably shouldn't assume they'd luck into a historically good prospect like the Mavs did.