Melissa Rohlin
FOX Sports NBA Writer
Devin Booker is in quite a quandary.
His Phoenix Suns are imploding. After entering the season with championship expectations, they’re in 10th place in the West and are fighting to make the play-in tournament. They stunned Kevin Durant by trying to trade him in February before he kiboshed a deal that would’ve sent him to Golden State. Bradley Beal was involved in multiple trade rumors despite his no-trade clause. There are whispers that coach Mike Budenholzer’s future with the team could be shaky.
The Suns are clearly on the verge of seismic change this offseason, with all three of their stars on maximum contracts and not enough to show for it.
So, the big question is what does this mean for Booker, a 28-year-old who recently signed a four-year, $224 million supermax extension with the Suns through the 2027-28 season?
When asked if he believes he could be traded too, he pointed to the fact that no one is safe, something that was driven home to everyone in the NBA when the Dallas Mavericks sent Luka Doncic – a 26-year-old who is considered a top-three player in the league – to the Los Angeles Lakers in February.
“Look at the situation that got Luka here,” Booker told FOX Sports. “I understand that it’s a business. I’ve been around a long time. The Luka one is probably the craziest trade we’ve seen. But the game just keeps going.”
Suns owner Mat Ishbia recently told ESPN that trading Booker this offseason would “never happen,” adding, “I have Devin Booker in the prime. In order to win an NBA championship, you got to have a superstar.” Booker also apparently isn’t interested in being traded.
But it’s clear that frustrations are mounting for Booker, whose Suns reached the NBA Finals in 2021 but haven’t made it past the second round of the playoffs since.
During a recent trip to Los Angeles, Booker couldn’t help but feel crushed by how much things have changed since around this time four years ago, when he was standing in front of the same locker, celebrating having just beaten the LA Clippers in the Western Conference finals.
He remembers the scene vividly.
He and his teammates poured water over Chris Paul’s head. Deandre Ayton, lying on the carpet, cuddled the conference finals trophy and asked, “Why she play so hard to get?” Booker beamed, hopeful he was going to win his first championship in his first postseason appearance.
Fast-forward to last March 16, when Booker was in the same place, but worlds apart.
After losing to the LeBron James-less Lakers, he was surrounded by a semicircle of reporters asking him different iterations of the same question: How can the Suns be so bad despite having so much talent? Durant left the locker room before speaking to reporters. The mood was dismal, as the Suns’ slide continued following the month of February, when they went 3-10.
Booker didn’t sugarcoat how the juxtaposition felt.
“Very frustrating,” Booker told FOX Sports. “We celebrated the Western Conference finals right here. I was standing in the same spot.”
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It’s confounding that the Suns are in this position considering they have a coach with championship experience in Budenholzer, a two-time champion and two-time Finals MVP in Durant and seven All-Star appearances between Booker (four) and Beal (three).
So, seriously, what’s the problem?
“Talent only gets you so far,” Booker told FOX Sports. “I’ve been on teams with less talent that found ways to get more wins. It’s just the little things. What people always say, the details of the game. Although it sounds like we should know that at this part of our careers, it’s just something you need to form and develop and learn through trial and error.
Budenholzer chalked up the Suns’ issues to effort, saying, “We need a little bit more from everybody.” He included himself in that category, too, following a game in which Durant chirped at him shortly after they exchanged words during a game earlier this month. Durant — who made his 15th All-Star appearance in February, and is averaging 26.4 points on 52.6% shooting, including 41.6% from beyond the arc, alongside 6.1 rebounds and 4.3 assists — pointed to the first incident as evidence of how much they both care about trying to right the ship.
The Suns have now won two games in a row, beating Toronto on Monday and Chicago on Wednesday. But they have a tough stretch ahead, including facing some of the top teams in the East in their next three games, in top-seeded Cleveland, second-seeded Boston and fifth-seeded Milwaukee.
For Booker, his time with the Suns has been a rollercoaster. He saw them go from not even making the playoffs in his first six seasons to reaching the Finals in 2021. Then, Ishbia turned the team on its head to acquire Durant followed by Beal. Last season’s shortcomings could be chalked up to injuries.
But this season, the Suns are out of excuses.
Booker has been here through it all, growing into a four-time All-Star, two-time All-NBA selection and two-time Olympic gold medalist. He’s averaging 25.7 points, 4.1 rebounds and 7.0 assists in 37.4 minutes this season, while shooting 45.7% from the field and 34.7 % from beyond the arc.
This past summer, Steve Kerr called Booker the “unsung MVP” of Team USA following its gold medal-winning run at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. Booker started every contest and finished with a plus-minus rating of +130 over 11 games, the highest of anyone on the team.
Back in 2021, LeBron James, unprompted, expressed a similar sentiment about Booker, tweeting that he was “the most disrespected player in our league” after he was snubbed for the All-Star Game. (He was later named to the team by NBA commissioner Adam Silver as an injury replacement for Anthony Davis.)
When Booker was asked if he gets the respect he deserves, he shrugged.
“From the people that I respect,” Booker told FOX Sports. “I wouldn’t want it any other way. Social media, they can do what they want. When you’re getting claimed that by two Hall of Famers, [including] one, [who’s] arguably the best player to ever live, it means a lot. I developed a good relationship with all those guys through the summer at the Olympics. The respect is real. I can feel it when they talk to me.”
Booker didn’t make the All-Star Game this year, but it’s clear that those closest to him deeply appreciate what he brings to the court every night, especially Ishbia, who claims he’s the team’s untouchable player.
So, as the Suns’ future remains uncertain, Booker is choosing to remain hopeful that they can figure out a way to transform things again, and he can continue to play for the franchise that drafted him 13th overall in 2015.
Booker often thinks about how the Suns climbed out of the cellar four years ago, something he was recently reminded of as he stood in that locker room in Los Angeles.
He’s choosing to believe they can do that again.
“We were at the bottom of the league,” Booker told FOX Sports. “So, it’s something that I’ve seen can turn around. I’ve seen it be fixed before. So, that’s the motivation. Just do that again.”
Melissa Rohlin is an NBA writer for FOX Sports. She previously covered the league for Sports Illustrated, the Los Angeles Times, the Bay Area News Group and the San Antonio Express-News. Follow her on Twitter @melissarohlin.
Devin Booker
Phoenix Suns
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