The Phoenix Suns aren’t short on intriguing storylines heading into the upcoming season. With so many players at different stages of their development, it’s difficult to narrow the focus to one individual and identify him as the player to watch in Phoenix this year.
But that’s exactly what Bill Simmons and Rob Mahoney of The Ringer did on the most recent episode of The Bill Simmons Podcast. For the second consecutive episode, Simmons went team by team across the NBA, taking a broad look at each franchise
and identifying one player worth paying particular attention to this season.
His choice for the Phoenix Suns? Devin Booker.
Booker is an interesting case. He’s the face of the franchise, the highest-paid player on the roster, and somebody who recently stated his intention to shoot the ball much more this season. He also remarked at Suns Media Day that he loves the game more than ever.
“Sometimes I fall into passing too much and this year, hopefully, I fall into shooting too much,” Booker stated to Arizona Sports 98.7.
How will this happen for the player who led the team in assists last season with 386 and was third in passes per game with 35.8? The hope is that Booker will be asked to facilitate less this season, allowing him to focus more on scoring and creating opportunities for himself. It’s something Eddie Johnson recently touched on while speaking with Kyle Odegard, reporting for NEXTPredict.
“If you want to go far and win a championship, you’ve got to have that guy, and he is that guy,” Johnson told Odegard. “I’m happy that he’s talking that way (about shooting more), because until now he’s really been like a rollercoaster, up and down with that mindset. I think now he understands that he cannot take a back seat to anybody on this team.”
Would we like to see Devin Booker utilized in a role that creates more opportunities for him to shoot? Absolutely. But Bill Simmons made an interesting observation when explaining why he selected Booker as the one player to watch in Phoenix this season.
“[He’s] the number one guy that you just assume in your head is shooting like 44% from three and it’s 34% last four years,” Simmons observed. “Is this just it? This is just what the rest of his career is going to be like? He’s just going to be on mid-level teams averaging 26 a game.”
“The scale of that contract might have sealed it just because,” Rob Mahoney added. “I think it’s every guy’s right to chase after and want to be overpaid, right? Like, get as much money as you possibly can. At the same time, it’s going to be really hard to build a contending team around him because I think he’s kind of on that cusp of if he’s your number one offensive player, the ceiling feels pretty strict. You could maybe build an elite defense around him with just enough supplementary playmaking, and then he’s the killer who sort of like Allen Iverson-style wills you to the Finals. I just think that’s a really tough life. It’s maybe a recipe for like a one-off run, but maybe Phoenix already had its one-off run, you know, like maybe him and Chris Paul, Mikal Bridges, that was it, and from here on out it’s just going to be pretty good.”
I think Mahoney’s point is pretty spot on. I have no qualms with that observation whatsoever. But this is where I’ll zag a little. Or “zog,” as Simmons called it on his podcast.
I don’t believe Devin Booker is the number one guy to watch in Phoenix this upcoming season. I believe it’s the team’s second-highest-paid player, the one who, in theory, will be tasked with creating more opportunities for Booker to shoot. That player is Jalen Green.
This is an interesting season for Green, who will earn $36.3 million this year and holds a $36 million player option for next season. If he can settle into his new role and expand his ability to facilitate, it could open up more opportunities for Booker while elevating the Suns’ offense as a whole. We’re not asking him to become Steve Nash, somebody he’s been training with throughout the offseason. We’re not expecting 11 assists per game with only three turnovers. But what we are looking for, and what I imagine the organization will be evaluating closely, is his ability to see the floor, create space, and be responsible with the basketball.
Green has a career assist-to-turnover ratio of 1.4:1. That’s (somewhat) acceptable when you’re operating primarily as a shooting guard. But when you’re being asked to take on more responsibility as a distributor, ball security and decision-making become increasingly important.
And why does all of this matter? Because it ultimately influences how this franchise can operate moving forward.
Simmons and Mahoney both expressed concern that the Suns could find themselves stuck in the middle of the NBA landscape, in part because of the size of Devin Booker’s contract. Fact. There are plenty of highly paid players whose organizations have constructed rosters around their strengths, attempting to maximize what those players do well while surrounding them with complementary talent. The Knicks just won a championship around Jalen Brunson, but financially, Karl-Anthony Towns is the player who ate 34.4% of their cap last year (the same as Booker). It is possible. Granted, they didn’t have a $24 million weight around their neck.
The ceiling of any team built around Booker, as Mahoney notes and I agree with, will naturally be influenced by the ceiling of what Booker can provide as its best player. And perhaps that’s why Simmons and Mahoney selected him as the one guy to watch in Phoenix. But I think if you’re evaluating both the short-term potential and long-term viability of this franchise, including the options available to the organization moving forward, your attention should be directed toward Jalen Green. Because how he develops in this role could have a significant impact on what the Suns become, how effectively Booker can operate, and what decisions the franchise will have to make in the years ahead.
Booker is the known commodity. We understand what he brings, what his limitations are, and what the Suns need from him. Green represents something far less certain, and potentially far more consequential. If he can develop into a reliable facilitator while maintaining his scoring ability, Phoenix gains an entirely different offensive dimension. If he can’t, the organization faces some difficult decisions. That’s why, with all due respect to Simmons and Mahoney, my eyes will be on Jalen Green.
