Booker is the second best player on a legitimately bad, ~35 win team. Not an All Star or injury replacement. 29 years old. On a supermax contract paying him $175M for his age 30-32 seasons. Shooting 34% from 3. Bad defensive stats. Are we sure Booker is an elite asset in 2025 and going forward?
Yeah I honestly think I'm out on Booker. There's a decent argument Jalen is having a better season. Obviously peak Devin Booker was better than current Jalen Green, but I'm not sure peak Devin Booker is ever coming back, and I'm not sure current Jalen Green won't become peak Devin Booker. On top of that, dude is at the age where it's totally possible he could be more or less done in the league in like 3 or 4 years. That doesn't really fit our timeline if so. Kinda shifted toward hoping the Suns land us Cooper Flagg or Ace Bailey, honestly
Booker is an excellent player on a disappointing team. Even in a down year, he's scoring 26 ppg with a true shooting percentage is at .593 which is elite for a guard. He is really good at drawing fouls and hits 89% from the free throw line. While he deserves some blame for the Suns failures, their owner and GM have done a poor job of building around he and Durant. That team seems to have given up and it isn't surprising that Booker isn't playing hard defensively. I think he's one of the most likely stars to be available to us this coming summer. He's a better fit than Durant. His contract is intimidating but he was a top-15 player in the NBA last season. He's a big upgrade offensively over Jalen. I like Jalen but it's unlikely he ever becomes an all-NBA player. Jalen Green and Dillon Brooks plus some draft capital for Devin Booker and Ryan Dunn makes us a much better team.
I do think the Suns completely blow it up this summer - their current state is just too catastrophic - but I think KD lands in MIN or DAL and Booker lands in…. Detroit. Booker reps his hometown Detroit teams really hard, he fits better in DET bc they are not an org really trying to win championships - just trying for some respectable playoff success, and DET would be super motivated because it’d be a unicorn situation for them - bc he’s the only player in the league that actually wants to be in Detroit. Meanwhile we just let PHX soft rebuild without their picks and collect lottery assets to get a truly elite asset. Maybe we interject in the KD or Booker trades and swap 1 PHX pick for 2-3 other picks they get back, like the BKN deal.
What if we don’t trade the Suns’ picks and just draft with them? At this point we are gonna have several more years of lotto picks. Is that so bad?
I would say one of the 3picks/swaps swap from the nets or pick from the Mavs will be 1-2 top 5 picks quite high at this point.
Suns are toast. Losing with good statlines should HORRIFY a team. This is the same statline every night except they didn't win the % battle this time. They can outrebound, 3%, assist, FTs and still lose because they play All-Star ball. By playing no D, the other team is fresh in the 4th and will just pull away at the end because they will get hot trading baskets. Phoenix was so stupid for trading the 2031 pick and for not bailing on Durant and Booker when they had the chance. They will trade KD this offseason but his value is lower. Still mad at Rafael for not squeezing that PHI 2027 pick out of Nets.
Personally I think Zion is the best trade value in the entire NBA right now. The Pelicans seem to be open to gifting their players, Ingram went for what I would say is a discount, Zion is hated by so many and they share similar views as you, his value has diminished. However, if you look at the way he is playing and watch the games, he is actually having a career year. He is that good, and this is the best he's ever played across several categories. The best part is that his contract is essentially unguaranteed. You are not going to get a super star via trade unless there is something wrong w them. Even someone like Luka was painted as a 270 pound beer drinking hookah smoking 25 year old. Zion's worst season (in 6 years, 1 year less than Tractor's entire career) would be significantly better than Tractor Trayler's best season, and it is not even close, so that is a very poor comp. I don't think people realize how much raw talent Zion has, he was supposed to replace Lebron coming into the league. Zion's worst year is well beyond Zach Randolph's best year as well. I would have gone after him this past deadline as a few more losses for the Pelicans would have increased their chances at Flagg. Zion is the perfect low risk high reward type of deal a smart GM makes. A career year in rebounds, blocks, steals, second highest and close to his highest in many other categories and unguaranteed and rumored to not be expensive, this is the ideal scenario you check to see if a change of scenery helps the guy. Even in his current state, he is the #1 option on 80% of teams. He would be the leading scorer on the Rockets.
Not sure Booker is the superstar that most think he is. On the Suns forum 80% of their fans voted to trade him instead of build around him. Many believe CP3 was more of the reason the Suns made the playoffs over Booker’s contributions. Some of their fans believe getting Green and Tari back in a trade would be a good enough deal. While Booker is better than Green, he hasn’t proven he can carry a team. He has had a healthy KD and a roster that’s at least equal to the Lakers yet has a loosing record. If you’re going to give him a super max he has to be able to win games and right now Suns fans don’t trust him to win. They also don’t believe he’s a leader on and off the court. He’s been accused of not playing defense this year and whether that might be due to loosing it’s not what you would want to see from your best player in terms of effort. The Rockets would probably also have to let FVV go even if Green and Tari were the only ones traded. Perhaps the question to ask is if Booker could win more games than having FVV, Green and Tari on the team.
59% is not good enough for a super max contract, Jokic, SGA, Giannis are at the 62%+ TS mark. Jalen may not become an all NBA player, but if that happens he also wont make the max. I'm ok with that, better than overpaying for a super max player.
If you are comparing on-court accomplishments of Tractor Traylor or Oliver Miller with Zion then you completely missed the point. Zion is devalued for good reason. This is a player that is going to play himself out of the NBA. He had every reason in the world not to do this. If you think he is going to continue to develop and build on a handful of games you haven't been watching his career. Trust me, EVERYONE, especially the Pelicans invested all the time and resources in the world to develop Zion and this is what they got. This is a much bigger issue than you think. If you have people that will wait on you hand and foot and do whatever is needed to keep you healthy and in shape and you STILL sabotage it then you have major problems. Zion got to the NBA with world class athleticism but that can disappear as quickly as it appeared. The history of the NBA is littered with players that squandered talent and athleticism and most lost it to injury that was beyond their control. Nobody denies how great Zion's athletic talent was coming into the NBA. Also, the Pelicans aren't going to trade him for the very reasons you mentioned. He has tremendous value to them and very little value to outside teams. They are going to lowball NOLA and they cannot accept that because it is so hard to get talent there. With him playing like he is now would you trade him? Didn't think so and neither would NOLA. However, you know that he is almost definitely going to take a big step back based on his history. Pray he never gets injured again and has the excuse.
Ace Bailey replacing Cam Whitmore. Ace Bailey would be a upgrade off the bench. His jab step fake out and shooting 3s is impressive. Post Up Hook Shots. Very fundamental player.
For missing the same amount of shots, missing the same number of free throws, and having the same amount of turnovers, Booker gives you 5 more points and 4 more assists. I don't think the argument is decent. Caveat: I may be biased low on Green. Caveat number 2: I'm not as pro-Booker as I was, but that is mostly due to Amen showing more guard skills. I still want to try to add value for the next 2 seasons, I just am less sure SG is the best spot.
As the Suns fade down the stretch, will Durant stop playing games, ala Jimmy Butler? It's quite possible. Why take on the extra miles? Booker, on the other hand, has been super loyal. They have built around him. He's been on bad teams, but has he had enough? This is the worst case scenario for Phoenix, and it could happen, which would make their trade value even worse. Stone has proven he's in no hurry here. He probably wants to see how the Suns pick will turn out in the lottery. If the Rockets beat the odds and it's anything better than its slotted position, the Suns are almost forced to come to make an offer. The cost of reclaiming draft capital should be sky high. Even if the Rockets fail to move up, Durant or Booker should only net 1 of the Suns' future picks. Stone might include Cam or Sheppard with vets to match salary if he feels generous. However, that's probably the ceiling of any offer.
They play N.O. again tonight and it should be the last time they are favored for quite awhile. We play them twice down the stretch.
Yep, I think they will be big dogs in the 8 games following the Pelicans. After the Pelicans, their average SOS the rest of the season will be over 58% (i.e., their average opponent will be a 48-win team).
The argument would mainly be that Booker is having an atrocious defensive season and Jalen has become average to above average. I think Booker is probably still better this season but it's not totally insane to think JG is in his ballpark
Yeah, honestly, I'd rather get KD to boost the team for the next couple years while the young core continues to grow.
