The Phoenix Suns are going to return to being the Devin Booker show for the 2025-26 season, and that is a development that fans in The Valley appear happy with. Although there is going to be a lot of losing, there is also no doubt that Booker is on his way to being the greatest player in franchise history while still being only 28-years-old.
The prospect of watching him get back to being his dominant best is an exciting one, while a return to the All-Star game - perhaps against an unexpected teammate should he get there - feels like the minimum for Book. As for winning an NBA championship? That dream unfortunately feels as far away as ever.
Lack of All-NBA selections will one day hurt Booker's Hall of Fame case.
With the offseason mercifully coming to an end, the good folks over at ESPN have been doing all they can to keep churning out content during the quietest part of the calendar. Zach Kram had a fun experiment as part of the festivities around the Naismith Hall of Fame announcements for 2025, and he assessed the chances of 50 current players of one day getting in.
Booker landed in Group 5, which was dubbed "29-year-olds on the edge", with all of guys in that cohort going to be that age by the end of next season. Some fans might disagree with Booker being named alongside Jalen Brunson, Donovan Mitchell, Jaylen Brown and Domantas Sabonis, but that is exactly where he should be for one key reason. He has only two All-NBA selections so far.
The most loyal athlete in the NBA. Devin Booker gonna have a huge 2025/26.
— LEEZUS (@AndrewLeezus) September 4, 2025
like this tweet if you still fully support Book ❤️ pic.twitter.com/0IKnKIXcx4
This is far from the only indicator of success - he's also 10th in the league in points scored through age 28 - but it is a concern. Despite being thought of as one of the best players in the league to start the decade, Booker couldn't even make All-NBA consistently when that was the case. Since the NBA Finals of 2021, there is no doubt his star has faded somewhat.
He couldn't make it work with Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal, and for the next couple of years he's not likely to get the nod because of how bad his teams are going to be. If you're not going to win a championship or be the best player on teams that go on deep playoff runs consistently, you have to hit this All-NBA mark.
But for Booker the last two seasons have finished with being swept by the Minnesota Timberwolves in the opening round of the playoffs, and last season not even making the play-in tournament. There's no doubt he remains an incredible player - underrated even at this point - but the insistence of the Suns to play him as a point guard from time-to-time is also not helping his case.
Of those two selections, only one of them was to the first team back in 2021-22. Not that there's anything wrong with his third team selection of 2023-24, but that year his former teammate in Durant managed a second team nod. The reality now is that younger stars such as Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Anthony Edwards have also leapfrogged him in the public eye.
So while he's going to go into the Ring of Honor at the first opportunity once he calls it a day, it is hard to know if the Hall of Fame is on the cards for Booker at this point. Despite being beloved by many hoop heads, he's also missing that something that Carmelo Anthony and Allen Iverson have, and which fans resonate with so much despite never climbing the mountain. One to watch.