With the season off to a slow start, many Suns fans have expressed frustration with the team, myself included. Whether it’s how the starting lineup fits, the lack of cohesion on defense, the lack of a second star, or frustration with shooting percentages, there’s something for someone to pick at and be mad about. For a team that was supposed to build on last year’s success, it hasn’t looked that bright just yet. They have shown in spurts that they can be this solid, but ultimately their shortcomings
seem to overpower their positives.
Injuries to the team’s frontcourt at the start of the year forced the Suns into a situation they may not have been as prepared for, and it has ultimately cost them. Then you add Jordan Goodwin being out and missing his hustle and rebounding, and there seem to be some issues. Especially when you look at the fact that in two games, Devin Booker has dropped over 30 points and the team has lost by a landslide; in this recent game vs. the Spurs and the one last week against the Trail Blazers, Booker was on and showed he can be that number one option for this team. He can hunt his shots, find them, and, most importantly, he is not washed.
Sadly, in both of those games, Booker had no one else show up offensively to help him. This is where the main problem comes into play, as the Suns’ owner, Mat Ishbia, wants to win a championship, and one with Booker at the helm. Unfortunately, when your second-highest-paid player is the same position and functions best in the same role as your 1A star, you have a problem, and that is where Jalen Green comes into play.
Now it’s not all Green’s fault, since they’re asking him to play a role he’s never played in his career, and he’s not too bad at it. Yes, he turns the ball over a lot when he mishandles it, but he can make some nice passes to create plays. The problem is that since he always has to make the pass, he also wants to hunt his shot when others are out. That doesn’t work for Green, though, because it forces contested looks or shots, disrupting the team’s rhythm. His averages this year clearly show this: his worst in six years.
Can he be a good player? For sure, but it depends on whether he can play a role he won’t succeed in on a team that needs a true playmaker and facilitator. That will not help Booker and has proven to be the case this year. Will the Suns regret trading Green, though? No, because the fit was never going to work with how they’re constructed, with Booker in the same role as Green.
So how does one get this second star in Phoenix, you may ask, right? Well, that goal may be one of the bigger obstacles for this team, since they lack draft capital. Remember that 2033 pick that the Suns traded for Miles Bridges? That was the team’s most valuable asset, and yet they traded it the day they could for someone who, at best, would be the third offensive option.
Your assets are either Dillon Brooks, Miles Bridges, Mark Williams, or Jalen Green. Their value isn’t enough to get you anything relevant for the next step. For everyone clamoring for Kyrie Irving, Anthony Davis, and Darius Garland, those players will cost a decent amount of pick value to acquire. With Green basically looking like a glorified six-man for the Suns in his best role, how would that trade value get boosted enough for other teams to see him as a positive?
That is why, sadly, this hunt for that second star may have to wait on Khaman Maluach’s development. The big man has looked solid since moving into his bench role, and with more development this year, he can truly set himself up to take those next steps toward becoming a top-tier big man. This year, it seems like the team is trying to figure out new roles for the players we have and then make a playoff run. The offseason will focus on adding a second star player and freeing up time for this big-man duo to cement themselves as the true starter and backup.
At this point, I do think waiting that long is just not going to be beneficial. At this rate, we have seen that the true “second option” cannot be that, given his new role as the point guard. Brooks has to step up, and even though he can do it, the Suns should not be living and dying by his catch-and-shoot three for this season to be impactful. In his best role as the best defender, Brooks should be the third or fourth offensive option.
The game plan for the Suns seems tough, but there may be some light at the end of the tunnel. Even though we are just around 10 games in, there are clear issues that need to be addressed before the trade deadline. Some of them are even as early as next week, but time will tell if they make those adjustments or stand pat until they can actually pivot in a direction. With all that said, though, one thing is clear: if the Suns want another chance at a championship with Booker, they need another top-tier scoring option.
