The Phoenix Suns aren't going to trade Devin Booker this offseason. If owner Mat Ishbia has his way, they never will. For what it is worth the 29-year-old superstar has always appeared happy to be in The Valley.
But the Suns need only look at the Utah Jazz and their own one-time dynamic scoring guard in Donovan Mitchell to realize that there is only one way the Booker era is going to end. Badly.
Suns can't truly contend while Booker is on roster with no help
Mitchell recently made the Conference Finals for the first time out East with the Cleveland Cavaliers, an achievement he never truly came close to reaching in Utah. He also had help in the form of four-time Defensive Player of the Year, which is a lot more than Booker has to work with right now.
Dillon Brooks is great for the culture and everything, and maybe one day Khaman Maluach can be something. But with two titans duking it out in the Western Conference Finals, no matter what the Suns put around Booker it won't be enough. Just like it wasn't for Mitchell with the Jazz.
So this can only end one of two ways. Booker retiring a Sun and likely the best player in franchise history, but never reaching the pinnacle. Or else he is moved to a better situation (like Mitchell the East makes more sense as it is an easier path to the finals) at the risk of hurting his legacy.
We know the failed trades for Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal are the reason for this. The Suns mortgaging their future on a pair of stars to win it all, but instead failing to pick up a single playoff victory. Not a single postseason game won with that trio.
Could Booker himself take another leap to try and help the Suns contend? Even if that happened, and being the same age as Mitchell it is unlikely that kind of improvement is coming, the gap remains too great. So the ending becomes a tragic one either way.
The key difference being that the Jazz didn't have close to the kind of relationship with Mitchell as the Suns do with Booker. He's out in Sedona doing sneaker releases with Ronald McDonald himself. That's something kind of special.
Think about it too long and you'll get sad, and the competitive nature of the roster in 2025-26 made it easier to put to the back of fan's minds. But a Mitchell like ending to give Booker a chance to contend before he calls it a career is the most likely outcome here.
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