Devin Booker is in a diameter.
Her Phoenix Suns implode. After entering the season with championship expectations, they are in 10th place in the West and fight to do the game tournament. They amazed Kevin during By trying to exchange it in February before he made an agreement that would have sent him to Golden State. Bradley Beal was involved in several commercial rumors despite its non-exchange clause. There are whispers that the future of coach Mike Budenholzer with the team could be trembling.
The Suns are clearly about to change seismic this offseason, with their three stars on a maximum of contracts and not enough to show it.
So, the big question is what it means to Booker, a 28-year-old man who recently signed a Supermax extension of $ 224 million over four years with the SUNS throughout the 2027-28 season?
When he was asked if he thought he could also be exchanged, he underlined the fact that no one was safe, something that was taken to the house to everyone in the NBA when the Dallas Mavericks sent Luka Doncic – a 26 -year -old man who is considered a top -Trois player of the League – to the Los Angeles Lakers in February.
“Look at the situation that obtained Luka here,” Booker told Fox Sports. “I understand that it is a business. I have been a long time. That of Luka is probably the craziest job we have seen. But the game continues.”
The owner of the Suns Mat Ishbia Recently said ESPN This Booker has the exchange of this offseason “would never arrive”, adding “, I guess Booker in the front row. In order to win an NBA championship, you must have a superstar.” Booker is also not interested in being exchanged.
But it is clear that the frustrations go up for Booker, whose Suns reached the NBA final in 2021, but have not exceeded the second round of the eliminatory series since.
During a recent trip to Los Angeles, Booker could not help feeling crushed by the quantity of things that changed since that time four years ago, when he was standing in front of the same locker, celebrating after having beaten the Los Angeles clippers in the West Conference final.
He remembers the scene strongly.
He and his teammates poured water on the head of Chris Paul. Deandre Ayton, lying on the carpet, cuddled the trophy of the conference final and asked: “Why is she playing so much to get?” Booker radiated, hoping that he was going to win his first championship during his first appearance in the playoffs.
Quick advance until March 16, when Booker was in the same place, but the worlds apart.
After losing against the Labron James-Sans Lakers, he was surrounded by a semicircle of journalists asking him for different iterations of the same question: How can the Suns be so bad despite having so much talent? During left the locker room before talking to journalists. The atmosphere was lamentable, while the Suns’ slide continued after February, when they went 3-10.
Booker did not make sugar that the juxtaposition felt.
“Very frustrating,” said Booker at Fox Sports. “We celebrated the finals of the Western Conference here. I was standing in the same place.”
“Suns are an abomination of basketball game” | Installation
He is confusing that the SUNS are in this position since they have a coach with a championship experience in Budenholzer, a double champion and twice MVP finals at Durant and seven stars appearances between Booker (four) and Beal (three).
So, seriously, what is the problem?
“Talent only leads you so far,” Booker told Fox Sports. “I was part of teams with less talent that have found ways to get more victories. It’s just the little things. What people always say, the details of the game. Although it seems that we should know that in this part of our career is just something that you must train and develop and learn by test and error.
Budenholzer wrote the problems of the SUNS for effort, saying: “We need a little more of everyone.” He also included in this category, after a match in which during the pushed little time after exchanging words in a match earlier this month. During – which made its 15th appearance to the stars in February, and has an average of 26.4 points out of 52.6% of shooting, including 41.6% beyond the arc, alongside 6.1 rebounds and 4.3 assists – underlined the first incident as proof of the way in which they both care to try to straighten the ship.
The Suns now won two games in a row, beating Toronto on Monday and Chicago on Wednesday. But they have a difficult section to come, especially against some of the best teams in the East in their next three games, in the seeded Cleveland, Boston, second seeded, and Milwaukee, fifth seed.
For Booker, his time with the Suns was a roller coaster. He saw them pass by not even having made the playoffs during his first six seasons at the end of the finals in 2021. Then, Ishbia turned the team on his head to acquire during followed by Beal. Last season’s gaps could be traced by injuries.
But this season, the Suns are out of an apology.
Booker was here through all this, becoming an All-Star quadruple, twice the all-NBA selection and a double Olympic gold medalist. It has an average of 25.7 points, 4.1 rebounds and 7.0 assists in 37.4 minutes this season, while pulling 45.7% in the field and 34.7% beyond the arc.
Last summer, Steve Kerr called Booker the “unknown MVP” of the American team after its gold medalist race at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. Booker started each competition and finished with a note of more than +130 on 11 games, the highest of anyone on the team.
In 2021, LeBron James, unlike, expressed a similar feeling about Booker, tweet that he was “the most disrespectful player in our league” after being snubbed for the star match. (He was then appointed to the team by the NBA commissioner, Adam Silver, replacing injury to Anthony Davis.)
When asked if he obtains the respect he deserves, he shrugged.
“People I respect,” said Booker at Fox Sports. “I would not want it to be otherwise. Social media, they can do what they want. When you are stated that by two Famers, (including) one, (which is) probably the best player to live, it means a lot. I have developed a good relationship with all these guys during the summer at the Olympic Games. Respect is real. I can feel it when they talk to me.”
Booker did not make the stars match this year, but it is clear that those who are closest to him deeply appreciate what he brings to court every evening, especially Ishbia, who claims that he is the untouchable team of the team.
Thus, while the future of the Suns remains uncertain, Booker chooses to remain hope that they will be able to find a way to transform things, and he can continue to play for the franchise which drafted him 13th in the general classification in 2015.
Booker often thinks of how the Suns came out of the cellar four years ago, which recently reminded him when he was standing in this locker room in Los Angeles.
He chooses to believe that they can start again.
“We were at the bottom of the league,” said Booker at Fox Sports. “So, that’s something I saw can turn around. I saw that it was before. So it’s motivation. Notice again.”
Melissa Rohlin is an NBA writer for Fox Sports. It previously covered the League for Sports Illustrated, the Los Angeles Once, the information group in the Bay region and the San Antonio Express-News. Follow it on Twitter @Melissarohlin.
Devin Booker
Phoenix Suns
National Basketball Association
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