Between a number of high profile trades and the NBA Draft, it has been a busy few days for the league. Not that the Phoenix Suns have been involved, as exciting as it got was moving up to the first round to select Koa Peat.
The franchise are really confident they got the right guy to add to their roster, and fans can be excited by the prospect of seeing the 19-year-old at Summer League alongside Khaman Maluach and Rasheer Fleming.
Dillon Brooks remaining Suns' second best player is a problem
With no more major moves expected outside of perhaps moving Royce O'Neale, Phoenix is staring into another campaign of Brooks being their second best player.
A title he didn't even have to begin last season, but which he quickly took from Jalen Green thanks to his injury woes. It got better for the Canadian international (and worse for the Suns as a result), with Brooks being the go to guy and at times best player in their brief playoff series with the Oklahoma City Thunder.
While many fans will say that this coming year is about developing the younger players and enjoying Booker for the star that he is, and they're not wrong to do so, Brooks being the second best player puts a depressing ceiling on this group.
It is great to bring back Collin Gillespie (and perhaps steal his successor) and Jordan Goodwin, while Green figures to have a greater impact than year one. But a 30-year-old who raises the floor of a team's regular season being in such a position is a tough spot to be in the Western Conference.
He cares and suits head coach Jordan Ott's system extremely well, while on his day he can be a 40 percent shooter from deep. But with the Minnesota Timberwolves adding LaMelo Ball and other big deals sure to go down soon, the Suns are being left behind.
There's every chance Jaylen Brown will head West, while the Thunder and San Antonio Spurs haven't gotten any worse either.
Brooks is rightly a cult hero and has a big role to play on this roster. It is just that he is being put in a position where too much is expected of him on a nightly basis, particularly offensively. He put up a career high 20.2 points last season, but the odds of his peak being behind him increase by the year.
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