PHX Suns off season could end their era

[Godymas]

Devin Booker is young, only 27, still has a good 3-4 years of prime play in him, still an elite SG in the league, but imo he just isn't a true superstar. He showed that flash towards the end of the 2022 season when he was carrying the team to the #1 seed but since then he's kind of just been decent but imo incapable of really winning on his own. He's clearly more of a #2 guy but the franchise is technically built around him since he was there since day one.

However, everyone knows that him and KD are actually the easiest guys to move on from on todays' team. It's all because the Suns FO took on the worst contract in the NBA which is Bradley Beal on a super max with a no trade clause. They can't just dump Beal to a bad team for a bunch of their guys, Beal has to SIGN OFF.

Because of this, if Booker or KD express incredible frustration with the FO and the management, both of them seem like the easiest options to move.

The only possible hail mary that could even remotely come to fruition, and this is a big what if 1% type of situation. Basically if Boston bombs out of the playoffs or fails to achieve their expectation and the Jayson Tatum/Jaylen Brown era needs to come to an end. The #1 guy everyone knows that Tatum would willingly want to play with is Bradley Beal. If Tatum asked the FO to trade for Beal and obviously Brown is the guy that gets shipped out. Beal already has the rapport with Porzingis, him and Tatum are brothers, he actually trains in the off-season with Tatum and the Boston guys come out and train with them. The money obviously lines up. The basketball fit will actually make sense for both teams. Jaylen Brown doesn't need the ball in his hands as much. Beal is significantly better at making his own shot and doing things off the dribble. The way Boston has spacing will support Beal's mid range game and they have the guys to cover Beal's weaknesses on defense.

Now obviously THAT ENTIRE SITUATION IS A 1% SITUATION

The more realistic scenario is, Phoenix decides to go all in on KD and Beal and knows Booker has the most value to surround the two of them with the right players. They ship Booker out for a haul that includes an above average starting point guard with defense, a solid 3nD player and a back-up big man and just accept that they are now on KD's timeline which Beal matches instead of being on Booker's timeline.

Everyone knows this is the worst option for the long term but let's be honest here, Booker is overrated, he isn't a superstar, he had one season where he was called the best SG in the league and that will very much never happen again in a world with Donovan Mitchell, Anthony Edwards, Kyrie Irving (technically), maybe Paul George still, Tyrese Maxey, etc.

And so the Devin Booker era could very much come to an end in Phoenix purely off of the sheer stupidity of their own management to dig themselves into a hole that rivals that of Brooklyn when they brought over KD/PP.

If these playoffs have taught FOs anything it is that drafted youth and smart veteran moves will beat out aging superstar groups as Dallas is very much in a position to close out LA, Minnesota is looking to close out Phoenix, Denver is looking to close out LA, etc.

[cpower]

Booker is fraud, and gave him first team all NBA in 2022 is crazy.. he was not better than Curry and Ja.

[Swish1906]

Suns are toast. Durant is too old for a true carry job and Booker is probably the biggest „superstar“ fraud in the NBA. He just doesn’t have the mindset…Beal is Beal.

Suns should be realistic, try to trade Durant to OKC for as many picks possible and sell high on Booker before the entire league realizes what Booker is.

[ReddoverKobe]

Suns are toast. Durant is too old for a true carry job and Booker is probably the biggest „superstar“ fraud in the NBA. He just doesn’t have the mindset…Beal is Beal.

Suns should be realistic, try to trade Durant to OKC for as many picks possible and sell high on Booker before the entire league realizes what Booker is.

Why does OKC do that?

[Fadeaway_Jumper]

The Suns played much better last year even when CP3 & Ayton went down and they were pretty much a two man team with Booker and Durant.

Bradley Beal doesn’t fit at all and was massive mistake trading for him. Why you mortgage your future for an always injured guy who consistently put his team in the lottery? We’ll never know

[Archx]

Suns shot themselves in the foot when they traded basically entire core for Beal and KD and also in the process lost important bench players. Cam and Bridges were perfect for them and the situation with Ayton was unfortunate but probably salvagable if both parties just sat down. Instead new owner tried to play NBA 2k GM mode in real life....

Do they even have any draft picks for the next 5 years? Or only bad contracts?

[JShuttlesworth]

The Suns are in a tough spot, a first round loss is a disaster for them. A first round sweep? Yikes.

I don't like Booker and I don't like Beal, and I definitely don't like them sharing a backcourt together. On top of that, KD is already 35...he'll come back worse next year, and I would be surprised if they got 75 games out of him again

Their tax bill next year is going to be crazy too

But the worst thing is their draft pick situation, which is essentially non-existent moving forward

Even still, I expect them to run it back next year with essentially the same roster (even if they get swept). They'll be stubborn about this. Maybe at next years deadline they'll make some moves if they're still sitting in the play-in range

[Run DLC]

Kevin Durant is the GOAT

[brackdan70]

They are in a tough spot for sure.
I know you said it’s a 1% situation but I can’t see the Cs front office trading Brown for Beal regardless . If they desire to ever try to move Brown I think it would be more for big.
I think short term they need to try and find some cheap pieces that fit…some strong defenders, and try to make another run and then if that fails start looking to transition.

[LAvision]

They made their bed.....

Dont they have no 1st round picks till 2030? And how much could KD and Booker really get in return? They are in such a bad situation.

[sunsbg]

Suns shot themselves in the foot when they traded basically entire core for Beal and KD and also in the process lost important bench players. Cam and Bridges were perfect for them and the situation with Ayton was unfortunate but probably salvagable if both parties just sat down. Instead new owner tried to play NBA 2k GM mode in real life....

Do they even have any draft picks for the next 5 years? Or only bad contracts?

The league doesn't allow to completely trade all your picks fortunately. If your Mavs are better than the teams Suns owe pick swaps than they are in pretty much same situation draft-wise. Both teams will hope to hit on few late 1st round selections until 2030.

https://basketball.realgm.com/nba/draft/future_drafts/team

Suns will get back a pick or two for KD in next year or so.

[Wolfgang630]

Suns are toast. Durant is too old for a true carry job and Booker is probably the biggest „superstar“ fraud in the NBA. He just doesn’t have the mindset…Beal is Beal.

Suns should be realistic, try to trade Durant to OKC for as many picks possible and sell high on Booker before the entire league realizes what Booker is.

Why does OKC do that?

People have this weird fairy tale ending obsession.

[HotelVitale]

Suns shot themselves in the foot when they traded basically entire core for Beal and KD and also in the process lost important bench players. Cam and Bridges were perfect for them and the situation with Ayton was unfortunate but probably salvagable if both parties just sat down. Instead new owner tried to play NBA 2k GM mode in real life....

Do they even have any draft picks for the next 5 years? Or only bad contracts?

They made their bed..... Dont they have no 1st round picks till 2030? And how much could KD and Booker really get in return? They are in such a bad situation.

They just owe BKN picks every other year, plus swaps to BKN/WAS that aren't likely to matter soon.

They're not totally out of options but they're pretty stuck. Their basic KD-Booker-Beal-Nurkic core puts them right at the tax on its own. They probably gotta shuffle around some pieces--maybe this year's pick for a cheaper decent vet on draft night--and hope for better chemistry running it back.

[Lalouie]

2024 is the "year of bad karma"

vet teams amassing "talent" for the big battle against father time
players who used to have their way is finally catching up with them
and knee jerk reactions to things beyond their control

[NoDopeOnSundays]

The owner has nobody to blame but himself, he went with the shortsighted "gotta make a splash" idiotic play. The worst position to be in the NBA is the older capped out team getting absolutely hammered by a younger team, because time is on their side and if they're already better than you what can you really do? At least the Bucks have an excuse which is Giannis is out, there's no excuse here for the Suns, they are getting killed by a bigger, younger more athletic team.

There's not much they can do, they'd need to trade Booker and KD trying to get back as many picks and at least 2 promising young players for them. The door is slammed shut on them competing for a title.

[Archx]

Suns shot themselves in the foot when they traded basically entire core for Beal and KD and also in the process lost important bench players. Cam and Bridges were perfect for them and the situation with Ayton was unfortunate but probably salvagable if both parties just sat down. Instead new owner tried to play NBA 2k GM mode in real life....

Do they even have any draft picks for the next 5 years? Or only bad contracts?

The league doesn't allow to completely trade all your picks fortunately. If your Mavs are better than the teams Suns owe pick swaps than they are in pretty much same situation draft-wise. Both teams will hope to hit on few late 1st round selections until 2030.

https://basketball.realgm.com/nba/draft/future_drafts/team

Suns will get back a pick or two for KD in next year or so.

Yeah you're right but i was also thinking more from a GM perspective. It's hard to unload bad contracts or do any decent moves without being able to include picks. Obviously KD still has some draw left so Suns could get something out of that but it's not looking that good right now.

Just weird, one or two seasons ago Suns looked insanely scary to me, now they're just meh.....

[Hair Jordan]

What era? They haven’t done sh-t.

[Godymas]

What era? They haven’t done sh-t.

the Devin Booker era obviously, please be serious when posting

[Pattycakes]

Dumping Booker now is the key to possibly save the future. Dump might be a strong word, but you get it

[Johnny Bball]

Just as the problem for BRK was Harden and the fit, in this case... Beal. Why did they ever add Beal. Its just a bad contract.