PHOENIX — Over nine years with the Phoenix Suns, Devin Booker has had 110 teammates. No Phoenix player has had more.
Steve Nash had 101 teammates during his two stints in Phoenix. Shawn Marion, poised to go into the organization’s Ring of Honor on Friday night, had 83. Alvan Adams had 72.
Booker has played with Archie Goodwin and Jordan Goodwin, Grayson Allen and Alan Williams, but Tuesday night marked the first regular-season contest in which he’s played with Bradley Beal. And this is significant for one major reason: Booker needs playmaking help.
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Opponents recently have changed how they defend Booker and the Suns. On Friday, Sacramento went to a box-and-one, something coach Mike Brown said he just kind of “threw out there” during the Kings’ win in Phoenix.
On Tuesday, Golden State blitzed Booker as he crossed halfcourt, Jonathan Kuminga on one side, Stephen Curry on the other. Sometimes it worked, other times it did not. The Suns ultimately beat the Warriors, 119-116, but they didn’t look sharp doing so, and they nearly let the game slip away in the final minutes.
“Yeah, we got to stop doing that s— to ourselves,” coach Frank Vogel said of the late sloppiness and lack of defensive focus. “It’s getting old.”
This is a strange time in the desert. Fans and media have been stuck in wait-and-see mode for what seems like an eternity. The Suns last season traded for Kevin Durant and then lost him after three games to a sprained ankle. The Suns in June traded for Beal — only to see him miss 19 of this season’s first 23 games with a back issue.
Look at it like this: Since the Suns acquired Durant on Feb. 9, they have fielded what was considered their regular starting five just 15 times in 59 games, a stretch that includes last season’s second half, the playoffs and the first 23 games of this season. Even with the Suns at 13-10, folks here are antsy.
Phoenix’s “Big 3” of Booker, Durant and Beal have not yet played together but they are expected to soon. If Durant returns from an ankle issue, it could happen Wednesday against Brooklyn. Or Friday against the Knicks. (This assumes nothing else goes wrong with those three. Josh Okogie, the Suns’ best perimeter defender, left Tuesday’s game with an injured hip.)
“I think you guys are probably more excited about it than us,” Beal said when asked about the possibility of the “Big 3” debut. “We’re definitely excited to get back on the floor with each other, but it’s a long year for us. We lace ’em up every night regardless of who’s with us or who’s not.”
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The importance of Booker cannot be understated. The Suns are 10-4 with him, 3-6 without him. Once viewed as one of the game’s top shooting guards, he’s emerged as one of the league’s top playmakers, averaging 27.7 points and 8 assists. Against Golden State, Booker had 32 points and 7 assists. He produced whenever Phoenix needed him.
"We have scorers and we have playmakers around here. Give it to Brad, give it to KD, let teams do their junk defenses, and operate after that.”
DBook on claims that the Suns "have no point guard" pic.twitter.com/Hlksllr3DY
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) December 13, 2023
You know who saw this coming?
Larry Bird.
In the build-up to the 2015 NBA Draft, Booker was viewed as a shooter in the Klay Thompson mold. Coming off the bench on a loaded Kentucky team, playing off the ball, Booker dished just 42 assists in 816 total minutes in his lone college season. In Kentucky’s Final Four loss to Wisconsin, Booker played 19 minutes but had the ball in his hands for just 38 seconds — total.
Vogel was head coach at Indiana that season. The Pacers entered the draft in need of size, but Bird, the team’s president, made it clear how he felt about Booker. “Yeah, Larry Bird told me about Devin Booker long before I ever heard of him,” Vogel said. “He was very, very high on him.”
The Pacers drafted Myles Turner out of Texas at 11. Booker went two picks later to Phoenix.
Asked if he saw signs back then that Booker could turn into an elite playmaker, Vogel said the work ethic and mindset were impossible to miss. “(But) to see him develop into the type of assassin that he’s become? I don’t think anybody probably forecasted that, or he would’ve been the No. 1 overall pick.”
(Judge for yourself. The top five players selected in the 2015 draft: Karl-Anthony Towns, D’Angelo Russell, Jahlil Okafor, Kristaps Porzingis and Mario Hezonja.)
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This season, Booker has thrived with balance. He knows when to distribute. He knows when to score. In Tuesday’s second quarter, Booker read the half-court trap, threw over the top to a teammate, who then found an open shooter on the wing. The Suns drilled 3s on four consecutive first-half possessions, strong looks that started with Booker realizing he couldn’t beat the double team off the dribble.
A game of runs so far!
Nurkic caps a Suns 16-5 run after the Warriors 18-2 run 👀
📺 Warriors-Suns | Live on TNT pic.twitter.com/uUYiGZ3BB0
— NBA (@NBA) December 13, 2023
“You don’t typically see double teams before halfcourt and box-and-one defenses,” Booker said. “Even at the end of the game, when teams full-court press, it’s not a typical NBA defense. (I’m) still trying to learn ways to figure it out. Obviously, if we’re all healthy, teams will have a harder time of throwing those defenses at us.”
This is where Beal comes in. The more comfortable he gets, the more playmaking help he can provide. In his first game since Nov. 12, Beal on Tuesday had 16 points and 3 assists. He hit 5 of 12 from the field. In his 12th season, Beal said playing is like “riding a bike.” He just needs to get his conditioning right. But for one night, he said it was good to help relieve some of the stress Booker faced.
The next step is to get Durant back on the court. Outside of practice, the trio hasn’t played together since preseason.
“I think we all have a good idea of what it could look like, but we got to put it together,” Beal said.
(Photo: Mark J. Rebilas / USA Today)
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