As Week 23 comes to a close, you take a step back and ask what did we learn about the Phoenix Suns? And the answer is not something new. It is more of a reinforcement of what has already been there all season. This team competes.
Even during that 1–6 stretch, the effort never disappeared. The pressure was there, the identity was there, the foundation of what we call Suns basketball was still present. What was missing was the ability to close. Late in games, the execution slipped, and when you are missing key
pieces due to injury, that margin becomes even thinner. It is hard to finish when the other side has its full arsenal, and you do not.
That reality carried into the conversation this week, especially after the loss to the Denver Nuggets. Devin Booker had a clean look from three late, a wide-open shot that would have flipped the outcome. He missed it, and that moment lit the fuse on a familiar debate. Why does it always end in isolation? Why does the ball always find Booker? Why is he the one taking that shot?
It is an interesting conversation, and it always seems to surface when the shot does not fall. There is a push from some to see more movement, more sharing, a search for the next pass and the next open look, regardless of who ends up taking it. The idea sounds clean. The execution is not always that simple.
In that moment, the Suns created a clean look for their best player. Booker was open, the shot was there, and those are the situations you live with. The debate lingers because of the result, but the process itself was sound. And that is where it becomes a little puzzling, because sometimes the difference between the right play and the wrong outcome is nothing more than a made shot.
Let me start here. Isolation is part of basketball. It always has been, and it always will be. When games get tight, when you hit those final possessions, offenses across the league slow down, become more deliberate, and the ball finds one player. That is not a Suns thing, that is a basketball thing. We all love the flow. The ball whipping around, transition opening up shooters, sets unfolding the way they are drawn up. That is the beauty of the game over 48 minutes. But late in games, it becomes about control. It becomes about putting the ball in the hands of your best player and living with the result.
For the Phoenix Suns, that player is Devin Booker.
You can debate where he sits among the league’s elite, you can stack numbers, you can build arguments on both sides, but the reality inside that locker room and on that floor is clear. He is the guy. He is paid like it, he plays like it, and he has earned that responsibility over time. That is not about forcing shots because of a contract, it is about trusting the player who has carried that load night after night.
Does it always work? No. But the objective in those moments is simple. Get your best player a clean look and give him a chance to win the game. And when you do that, when the process is right, you live with the outcome, make or miss.
What gets lost in all of this is the simple truth that games like Denver only matter because Devin Booker is on the floor. He is the reason you are in that moment to begin with. He is the one carrying possessions, bending defenses, creating something out of nothing when things stall. Without him, this team drifts. We have seen it. There is no direction, no steady hand guiding it. So when it comes down to that final shot, it should not feel complicated. The same player who got you there should have the chance to finish it. He earned that. Through the work, through the production, through the responsibility he has taken on all season. You live with the result, but you do not take the opportunity out of his hands.
Yes, other Suns’ players have hit big shots this season, and that is what good teams do. It is a sign of depth, a sign of trust, a sign that multiple guys are capable when the moment arrives. But it is always interesting how the conversation shifts when Devin Booker misses. The immediate reaction becomes that someone else should have taken it, that the ball should have moved one more time, that there was a better option waiting somewhere else. It turns into the ‘disease of what if’, a loop that never really ends.
“But Booker is only shooting 26.1% from deep in clutch situations.” True. And Grayson Allen is at 22.2%, Collin Gillespie is at 31.3%, Jalen Green is at (hides eyes with hands) 14.3%, and Royce O’Neale is at 33.3%. Every player on the Suns regresses in those situations, which is a greater conversation to be had in my opinion.
There is a comfort for some in imagining a different outcome. If the ball swings to Grayson Allen and he misses, it feels easier to accept. You shrug it off, say it was a bonus opportunity, and move on. But that same scenario would spark the opposite reaction from others, the question of why Booker did not take it. That is the catch. There is no version of it that satisfies everyone.
The reality is simple. Booker is the best player on the Phoenix Suns, and the offense should be geared toward getting him the best look possible in those moments. Defenses know it, they load up for it, they try to take it away. And still, that is where the ball is supposed to go. That is how this works across the league. Nikola Jokic gets that shot for Denver. Victor Wembanyama gets that shot for San Antonio. They convert, and it reinforces the idea. When they miss, the noise is there too.
There are levels to this. Booker sits within that hierarchy, even if he is not at the very top tier occupied by generational players. But for Phoenix, he is the guy. He is the one everything runs through, the one who carries the weight of those moments. This team goes as far as he takes it, and we have seen both sides of that this season.
Sometimes he delivers, like he did against Oklahoma City. Sometimes the shot does not fall, like it did against Denver. That is the nature of it. No one is perfect in those situations. Nobody is batting 1.000. And at the end of the day, if the Suns are going to live with anyone taking that shot, it should be Devin Booker.
Week 23 Record: 1-1
vs. Denver Nuggets, L, 125-123
- Possession Differential: +2.1
- Turnover Differential: -6
- Offensive Rebounding Differential: -4
The Phoenix Suns did a stellar job competing against a team that, quite simply, is better than them right now. They stayed in it, they pushed, they gave themselves a real chance. And you cannot help but wonder how it looks if they are whole, if the full roster is available, if the margins shift even slightly. Maybe the outcome does too.
vs. Utah Jazz, W, 134-109
- Possession Differential: +0.9
- Turnover Differential: -2
- Offensive Rebounding Differential: +10
Yeah, it’s only the Utah Jazz. But it felt good. It felt right. Watching the Phoenix Suns play that kind of basketball again, connected, sharp, purposeful, moving the ball, defending with intent, it reminded you what this team can look like when it all clicks.
Inside the Possession Game
- Weekly Possession Differential: +3.0
- Weekly Turnover Differential: -8
- Offensive Rebounding Differential: +6
- Year-to-Date Over/Under .500: +8
And now, the graph that I soon will no longer have to make…
Week 24 Preview
Week 24 arrives, and with it comes April basketball. You can feel the end of the regular season getting close now, as the runway is shortening. Four games on the schedule, all on the road, and all sitting there as winnable if the Suns handle their business.
It starts with a back-to-back. Monday brings the Memphis Grizzlies, a group that has shifted its focus and is playing out the string. That is one you have to take care of. No messing around, no letting it linger.
The next night, the Suns head to face the Orlando Magic, a team that has found some life. Phoenix needed double overtime to get past them after the break, a 113–110 win fueled by 27 points from Grayson Allen, and you know this one will have a similar feel. Competitive, physical, the kind of game that tests your legs on the second night of a back-to-back.
Thursday sends them to Charlotte against the Charlotte Hornets, a team they have already beaten once, but one that can still sting if you lose focus. They play loose, they play free, and that can create problems if you are not locked in. Then it wraps on Easter Sunday in Chicago against the Chicago Bulls, a chance to clean up a loss that did not sit well earlier this month. That one carries a little extra edge, a little extra motivation.
Four games, all on the road, all right there for the taking. This is where you sharpen things, where you build rhythm, where you make sure you are ready for what comes next.
65% of voters called the 1-1 record for the Suns this past week. A little bit harder to predict in Week 24. How do you think the team will do?
