Draymond Green really does not like the Phoenix Suns franchise. As a guest on TNT’s Inside the NBA, Green let it fly on how the Suns are bad for Devin Booker.
It’s great to see Book playing well and Phoenix playing well, but get my man out of Phoenix. It’s not good for him, it’s not good for his career. Sorry Chuck, but they’ve gotta get Book out of Phoenix. I need my man to go somewhere that he can play great basketball all of the time and win, because he’s that kind of player.
Draymond Green, on TNT’s Inside the NBA
Given recent context, Green’s comments don’t make too much sense. In the Orlando Bubble, the Phoenix Suns are 4-0, including wins over the Clippers and Pacers. They’ve been playing good basketball since the restart. Given the context of Devin Booker’s career, however, Green is correct that the Suns haven’t been all that great.
Devin Booker is only 23 years old, but he has already been in the NBA for five seasons. It didn’t take him long to prove himself as one of the most electrifying scoring talents in the league, dropping 70 points in a game at the age of 20. Not only have the Suns not made the playoffs in Booker’s tenure, they didn’t make the postseason during the entire 2010s decade. Phoenix has finished dead last in the Western Conference the last three seasons. They’ve been a dysfunctional franchise at best.
Devin Booker Should Probably Leave
TNT’s Ernie Johnson jokingly asked Green after his mini-rant, “Are you tampering?” Draymond responded, “Maybe.” Considering that the NBA is pretty liberal in terms of what they consider tampering, he might have a fine coming. But with their current cap situation, there’s no feasible way the Warriors could add Booker, plus they wouldn’t really have any position to put him at. The NBA shouldn’t have any reason to consider this a legitimate case of tampering.
But just because Devin Booker can’t go to the Warriors doesn’t mean he shouldn’t go to a different team. Phoenix really hasn’t been that good to him. They took multiple years to finally draft a potential co-star in DeAndre Ayton, but Ayton’s development won’t follow the same accelerated trajectory that Booker’s did. The Suns are a few years away from being a few years away, and that’s assuming they draft well for the next couple years or make some splashes in free agency.
The Phoenix fanbase has traditionally been very good to the players who stay there for a majority of their career (see: Charles Barkley, Steve Nash). If Booker decided he wanted to stick it out in Phoenix and hope for some changes in culture and personnel, the fans would love him for it. Loyalty is getting harder to come by in today’s NBA. It’s all about getting the ring, no matter how you get it. But if we’re being honest, Booker should probably leave. There’s plenty of other franchises that could give him a solid supporting cast with room to grow. Memphis is one group that could seriously benefit from trading for Booker. The Grizzlies have a clear path to being a very successful team in a couple years. No such path exists for the Suns.
Sorry Phoenix Suns fans, but if you really love Devin Booker, you’ll let him go.
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