Matt Ishbia confirms that the Phoenix Suns will not explore trading Devin Booker: “[He] is going to lead us to a championship here in Phoenix… I’ll ride into a fire with Devin Booker, and I’ll do it proudly.”
Then find us a mf’ing point guard please. Like an actual pg. Look at Books best years/ years he made the most leaps. Rubio and CP.
Fox might not be in SA long term. I’m not sure if he’s the exact type you’re looking for, but he could be an option.
The Suns need a playmaker who is a threat to score, not a scorer who can playmake.
That’s pretty rare in today’s NBA. The pass first PG is dieing out, and the ones that are incredible passers are usually the best player on the team or even the face of the team, so they’re hesitant to let them go.
Giddey would be a good fit with Booker
Maybe Lonzo with new knees 😔
Lonzo with functional knees is an all star and I’m dying on this hill
We’ll give you mark williams
He was solid when healthy.
Yes 100%. Size, passing, rebounding, transition offense.
Are you guys looking to move off of him?
Is there even a possibility of a deal with the limited assets we have? (Mark Williams S&T, Royce ONeale, Swaps, 2nds)
I assumed Giddey is out of our price range for sure.
Who knows? We currently don’t have a GM so it’s hard to say what the vision is going to be moving forward.
Apparently Williams is interested in joining Chicago in the summer though.
I like Giddey but he’s not a number one option, I don’t think he fits with the Bulls long term unless we luck into a superstar somehow.
Fully agree. Nobody is safe at this point.
We need someone with a good plan to come in and figure this out.
We have good 3rd options right now. But no clear star.
Friendly reminder that the Suns passed on Haliburton for Jalen Smith, who they ended up declining his rookie deal and traded him to the Pacers anyways lmao
suns not taking hali has had a huge butterfly effect on the league tbh
Definitely. There’s an alternate reality in which Hali spends a couple of years learning from the Point God and succeeds him, extending the Suns contention for years into the future.
I personally am glad we’re not in that reality.
this basically drastically impacts the suns, kings, pacers, nets, rockets, knicks, bucks futures. monty williams is prob still coaching the suns at this point and CP3 probably happily retires with the suns instead of bouncing around on 3 more teams. KD trade likely never happens.
lol truth, I’m blessed to be a Celtics fan and have the incredible front office we have because I’d be tearing my hair out if we were letting guys go like that.
Even crazier cause we were all pissed about it.
Even pre draft, Hali was the number 1 target for Suns fans/media. But, it was pretty unlikely he’d fall to us, so it was a long shot draft crush for a lot of us.
He ended up falling to us and we were SURE that he’d be the pick. Instead we took a massive reach on a guy most of us hadn’t really heard of since he was projected so much later.
In hindsight, one of those rare times that the fans were way more right and informed than an actual Front Office.
Halliburton man…
Draft that Purdue guy Braden Smith. I’m not even joking. Biggest sleeper in the draft IMO.
So Haliburton type
Absolutely
Well yeah, Haliburton and any other All-Star level SG would instantly become the best back court in the league
Fox is a better facilitator than most give him credit for after watching him all this season. He’s also top 20 in APG. Looking at the list ahead of him, I’m not sure who else would make more sense and actually attainable.
There’s not very many of those anymore. Trae young, hali, giddey, LeBron?
Nah, that’s so wrong. Booker needs an athletic guard who can get to the rim and draw defenses in to give him space to work.
CP and Book worked cause they were god like iso mid range scorers. Book was also the younger more athletic guy who got to the rim back then. Was similar to Harden and CP3.
Fox is not leaving SA for like 2 3 years
Eh maybe. There’s a decent chance Dylan Harper is just better and cheaper in 2 years and they trade fox for cap flexibility. You’re right that they wouldn’t trade him this offseason though
Fox isn’t who you want. Haliburton would be the perfect fit if I’m being honest - ironically a former Kings guard. Doubt Indiana has any interest in moving him ofc.
But you want someone in that vein. Maybe like Josh Giddey? Trae Young? Both have issues defensively, Giddey less so than Trae. Cp3 was special in that he is an all time playmaker and fantastic defender
We won’t move Haliburton unless he asks to be traded. He is untouchable
What about someone like Jrue Holiday?
If San Antonio does move on eventually, its gonna be several years from now. There’s no point with booker waiting 5 years till fox become available
Fox seems to be a pretty good option for most teams to be honest haha he just fits so well
Fox would be great IMO, assuming he can still finish sround the rim. That’s been the Suns biggest weakness, dating back to their finals run. Zero rim pressure.
Real point guards don’t exist anymore
Tyrese Haliburton
They sure as fuck cant have him, idc if he comes back a broken man hes ours. Lmao
As much as I can’t stand you guys, Haliburton is a baller. I hope he gets back to 100%.
Shiiiit we both hoping for it man.
Much as I cant stand some teams, i cant ever pull for injuries to players who are real human beings so I feel your sentiment.
Seriously. Fuck injuries. If you nail this pick, and Hali is back to 100%, your window might actually extend though.
I was screaming at my TV when our genius FO reached on a projected 2nd round big and Hali was just sitting there for us.
Is off the table
Could’ve drafted him to learn from CP3 while he was still on the roster. But they drafted Jalen Smith. And then immediately traded him away lol.
I fucking hate this team.
Cook
Quinn Cook to the Suns confirmed
He’s so good though I feel like he ascends past the “real point guard” role
7 of 10 assist leaders are point guards. Share what you smoking. Just because pgs also score at a higher clip doesn’t diminish how well they create still.
Problem is most of the guys in the top 10 are elite, supermax level players, not just your average point guards. What people think PHX needs, which seems to be rare nowadays, is a “floor general” guy who is there mainly to facilitate the offense and occasionally providing some scoring.
Garland is probably available
Would be a great pickup (for anyone, really) depending on the price. His stock seems like it’s pretty low at the moment, although I admit I haven’t watched him play a lot.
Looking at other top assist guys, names like Collier and Davion seem like they could go for the right price.
I feel like a lot of the point guards in today’s NBA are just scorers first who are able handle the ball and carry the ball up the court. There’s a definite lack of the floor general point guard who’s primary skill is running the offense and setting everybody else up.
Just because we haven’t found one since 2009 doesn’t mean they stopped existing
Would Josh Giddey be a fit?
I would love Giddey, there were rumors we were pursuing him over the summer. We could really use another playmaker who can create for themselves who isn’t one of the tiniest players on the court
[deleted]
Oh nice, I didn’t know we were just talking out of our ass today
Nothing he said was false
Jrue holiday ironically would be perfect
Idk, let’s give Brooks a season to cook and we’ll see if he can be that
I hear CP is available.
Congrats, the FBI has you on a list now
Quickly for Jalen green is intriguing. Lower level salary and performance wise but you could get Tre jones from the bulls probably for a decent price and just platoon start him and collin. Not a terrible idea
I wonder if OKC keeps Topic. If not, I mean he’s as pass first actual PG as they come, and young and raw but could be damn good. We prolly keep him tbh but he’s got hella potential
Jesus christ our fan base still talking about bringing in the mythical ‘real PG’ to play with Book
Have they had a proper one since CP3?
I haven’t watched much of the suns outside of the playoffs. Are you guys cooked with Booker?
Big Suns fan, big Book fan but tbh I think as long as Book is our number one option we’re stuck in the 7 seed and below going forward. In order to push past where we’re at we need a second guy who is better than Book or at least as good. We’re too easy to scheme for with Jalen and Dillon as the secondary scorers
You guys had KD, who’s on Bookers level or better and the team still struggled no? I don’t think just having another great player is the solution, it has to be a creator
It’s okay, heat fans are just as delusional at finding a real pg as well
I think Ja Morant is worth the risk for them. They don’t have much future capital and his value is at its absolute lowest right now. Morant would allow Booker to be the primary shooter and we’ve seen how he pairs with Dillon Brooks. He would be their first legit PG since CP3.
Ja is also a scorer first who can be a playmaker, not a playmaker first who can score. Not a Rubio/CP type at all.
It’s kinda baffling to me that the Suns didn’t bother trying to recreate their 2021⁄2022 roster around Booker when it was responsible for getting them to the Finals and #1 seed.
CP3s dont grow on trees
Maybe they can aspire to get CP3
This won’t get all the love it deserves but it’s one of the most creative responses I’ve seen in this sub in years
I thought “grow on trees” was even better
I don’t get it
Aspiration was the name of the firm the clippers used to pay Kawhi Leonard extra and skirt the cap, allegedly.
Oh
Referring to the Kawhi Leonard / Steve Balmer scandal with the company “Aspiration”
Neither do Prime Aytons which is arguably more of a major issue. His defense on that Finals run was stellar and raised the level of entire team’s defense by being a rim protector. There’s only so much effort can do for rebounding running lineups with Oso at center or having injury prone Mark Williams as the main option
Prayers up for Maluach to develop properly
We never had prime ayton he fell apart in the finals and quit playing. Did we watch the same series
lmao true
Somehow still disrespected
They should reach out to him for an assistant coaching job. Probably the only team he’d accept a long term job to, honestly.
They should send us Green and a pick for Ja then I can watch 4 former Grizzlies
They’ll send you a brooks too but it’ll be iffy if they meant marshon or dillon
Fuck it, send either at that point. Next years a wash
LOL
Making one of the best scoring guards of this era who just went to the Finals play point guard is one of the dumbest things I can remember.
Who happens to be absolutely deadly pulling up off the catch or coming off a screen
Still can’t believe they lost that Finals. They were so close to going up 3-1.
Giannis went nuclear
I mean we also need to have the draft picks to do it lol.
Yeah I’m questioning why you traded for KD in the first place.
They have 4 years of $20 mil cap space eaten up for Beal.
Is Ishbia the only owner that does a post-season presser?
That’s a good question lol, he’s done one every year since he’s owned the suns
I don’t know if he’s saying this just because he seems fairly skilled at PR or he actually believes it. Regardless of how you feel about him though, at least he gives a shit
He wants to win, hopefully learned his lesson about making big flashy win this year or bust moves. Compared to Saver who would sell picks for cash hes great.
Sarver was cheap as fuck but Ishbia took a team that made the finals the year before*, and blew the next 7 years of draft assets to make the play ins. I know he’s done a lot for the fans like over the air and concession prices which will deservedly give him a longer leash, but it’s been a sharp downturn since he took over on the court
He tried to buy a ring with the KD trade and failed. Personally what Ishbia has done for the fans matter very little to me, I’m not from Phoenix. Awesome that hes doing good stuff for the local fans, but for me the team is what matters.
Sarver fucked the Suns over for year after year before being lucky with the loyalty of Devin Booker. Most players would have asked out long before that Finals run happen.
Is the team worse than during our Finals run, absolutely, but Ishbia wants to win, Sarver wanted to make money. There isn’t even a debate about who you rather have as an owner. One traded draft picks to win, the other sold them for profit.
One thing I’ll say about him is I think he actually believes a lot of what he says.
Maybe I’m a fool, but Ishbia seems really active and locked in when it comes to his teams, and he seems to truly want to win. And if he does want to win, he wouldn’t keep Booker unless he genuinely thought he’s their guy.
Maybe Ballmer, but I doubt he’d do one this year hah.
He’d suck his own cock on video if he could.
He’s about to make \(70m and maybe it's injuries adding up but IMO he's looked like he's lost a step and has a hard time creating his shots/getting separation to shoot lately. They're also paying Brad Beal \)20m in dead money for the next 4 years and don’t own any of their draft picks.
TLDR: they ain’t doing shit lol
And he’ll probably get a final \(50-70mil per year contract after his current deal is up. I'm sure Booker would love to win a championship with PHO but I think he will settle with a final career total of ~\)700mil and a few playoff appearances with not expectations
It’s a fine career and he’s made it to the biggest stage. Still something most have never done. But if he truly wants to chase, that’s really up to him.
Fine career??? Are we looking at the same contract?! If you’re making 9+ FIGURES you had the best career you could ask for, accolades be damned
If careers are only about money, sure. I have non-monetary goals in my career.
That is honestly fucking disgusting. 700 mil to play basketball. good lord
How much money does he make the owner?
Yea especially because booker has 0 intentions of leaving phx, highest career earnings from an nba player, hes played through rebuilds, mediocrity, and contention and hasnt complained once. Not to mention he has lost a step from that finals run and isnt the superstar he was back then
Giannis and Book gonna run the west next season
Ya they’re fucked lol, no picks and no young assets unless you count green. Booker is depreciating, they won’t be good for a decade
No young assets? Aka you didn’t watch any suns basketball.
You guys have a bunch of promising young role players, I just dont see anyone that has a chance of increasing your ceiling in a significant way
Keep your eyes on rasheer flemming and his growth. Absolutely has all star potential. Maluach is only 19 and still growing. Super excited to see both of their progression. I would anticipate moving Royce O’Neil and Grayson Allen this offseason. Both should return some form of draft pick value.
No young assets is taking it too far, but Ryan Dunn and Khaman Malauch aren’t exactly carrying you to a title.
Yeah we need to get lucky with a single asset outside of Booker. Either Green really improves and learns to play more like a winning (shown flashes this season) or get lucky trading for some underutilized player and developing them
Who, then?? Gillespie? ighodaro? green?? That’s really not enough
Fleming and Maluach are really intriguing, but it’s a bit too early to really say one way or the other
No fucking chance they get far in the postseason with him eating that much cap. If it weren’t for Jalen green getting hot they would have missed the playoffs
Yeah Pistons fans still really want Book, but I think they’re just still infatuated with the idea of him as opposed to how he looks now. He still looks like a great player, but the price tag is way too much. It’s like paying for a Ferrari and getting a Corvette. You still got a super nice car, but those cars usually don’t cost that much.
It is a frustrating situation as a fan of Book. Of course in a perfect world it would be nice to look back and say he spent his whole career here but the team’s outlook with him as the number one option is basically fighting for the play-in for the foreseeable future. The window to trade him is now but obviously based on what Ishbia is saying it’s not going to happen
He’s 30 years old next season and entering his 12th year in the league. You REALLY better get moving on building an actual contender if that is your plan.
Devin Booker being 30 has made me feel old af
Holy shit hes been in the league 12 years already.
He is officially the longest-tenured subs player in their history by 3 years, beating out Steve Nash’s 8-year second run(10 if you include both tenures)
He’s looking eerily similar to Beal in his later years on the Wizards too
not even close lmao
I can’t believe you’ve done this
I think you can do two things:
Build a team designed to compete rather than tank, which Devin Booker is a central part of and make teambuilding decisions working towards the natural implication of building a winner, which is trying to win at the end of the year.
Be normal and recognize that this is very likely the most fun way to wait out the dead years of not controlling your own draft assets even with the incredibly high odds the Suns don’t win a title.
poised to age extremely bad but it’s cool to see an owner commit to his guy like this
Dawg, I still remember when they held a fake jersey retirement ceremony for Blake Griffin after giving him a big ass contract and then traded him like a few months later 😂
I can see this aging like unpasteurized milk
Of course it was fucking Ballmer doing that
Are you saying that Booker the player is poised to age extremely bad or the contract? I’d argue that Bookers game will age well, can’t argue about the contract but no reason to think you can’t still build a lot around Booker’s skillsets. It’s the main reason this team overachieved imo
He means the take. When Booker inevitably gets traded, people are going to be spamming this.
Why is Booker being traded “inevitable”?
The owner is literally telling you it’s not. As has Booker himself, his entire career.
The obsession with thinking every player is gonna force their way out is so strange to me. If there’s any current (young ish) players that are gonna be lifers, it’s gonna be Book,
I fully understand why people would question this as well as Booker’s massive extension but it is quite funny given the amount of shit I hear about the mercenary nature of the league and how both the teams and players have no loyalty that Booker and the suns both get constantly shit on for having a level of committment to each other. Given how incredibly shitty the suns were for Booker’s first five seasons in the league, the fact that the guy never bailed is almost unbelievable.
Also funny with all the complaining about tanking, how often I hear that the suns are stupid for trying to build a team now and that they should just firesale everyone and tank.
NBA fans in a nutshell:
tanking: bad, how could the Jazz do this
not tanking: also bad you should blow it up because you’re not beating OKC
stars ring chasing: bad, what happened to loyalty?
stars staying put: also bad, the guy clearly don’t want to win
Jazz are definitely a great case study in why you may not want to tank. They had a really good core of Mitchell and Gobert that disappointed in the playoffs and decided to blow it up entirely and they’ve now stunk for 4 years straight and still had no payoff.
No other fans are going to care about your team. They just like to blow it up when they don’t think it works. I do think the Suns are in a weird spot with Booker. He’s NOT a #1 and he’s also not an elite defender. So if you don’t find a PG who is an elite defender, you’re stuck with no elite perimeter defense. On top of all that, you have to keep paying Booker the MAX. He’s worth it but it’s also hurting you at the same time. But at least you were good enough this season that good players would want to come to Phoenix.
I mean this is respectful but god damn give him a good supporting cast if you’re all in on the guy, he needs a PG.
do you guys expect an owner to be like “yeah we know he likes it here but fuck him we’re trading him if we’re offered something good”
Some brain dead people in here. I don’t expect us to win a chip anytime soon, but what do you expect an owner to say lmao
It’s usually not that straight forward but yes, they usually say some version of “we’ll have some tough decisions to make this summer”
The team did better than anyone expected, with a first year head coach and injuries. They got swept by OKC who are the defending champs & have a stacked team. Don’t see why an owner would say theres tough decisions to make lol
This dude seems like a good owner with his heart in the right place.
Maybe the real championship is the friends we made along the way
Detroit still ain’t hanging up
I’m saying bro he is legitimately the PERFECT running mate for Cade as he is great off ball
I mean even if they do decide to trade him it doesn’t make sense for the Owner to say “ yea we are shopping him”. They can easily get a Desmond Bane level package plus a young player. With the new lottery odds I wonder how quickly teams are going to tear it down
Free him (to detroit)
I think that window closed
I was thinking the pistons would swing for him and maybe he’s keeping the price high. I wonder what price he’d listen to
You surely are taking him into a fire
hes gonna trade for draymond isnt he
Let’s get Haliburton. He will be cheap
Anyone that actually thought they might trade Book is silly. Ishbia has made it very clear where he stands on Booker, prior to this video
It would be sad if Booker request a trade out next season. Owners and players need to learn to never say never. Always leave a door open for yourself out especially if and when the building starts to burn.
he seems pretty happy there it would be really shocking
Best I can do is a slightly used Kyle Lowry
He should have said he would ride into the sun with him it would have been more thematic
They should go all in on KD this offseason…
Think what you will about Booker but Ishiba honestly seems like an awesome owner
He’s getting traded isn’t he.
Wtb point guard and center then maybe
Ride into the *Sun. Its there on the mic in front you dude.
The man really said he’s going to let it all burn down…. Booker is never leading anyone to a chip, not a chance.
not sure why people are so upset over this. booker has been there his whole career. ishbia is a good owner and is loyal to guys who care to be there
Ill translate. “Some of our fan base and some of the media are bitches. We weren’t expected to even be close to where we finished. And we took on a dominant OKC reigning championship team who started development when CP3 was there. Now fuck off.”
Definitely not. But it’s nice that he believes in his players.
The play-in championship?
This feels like a “he’s definitely gone moment.”
I hope this guy stubs his toe. You’re the owner, make changes to the team dork.
You say that now, Matt…
He gone.
Devin Booker will be like
Or how about you just invest in a steering wheel, so you can drive around the fire? Get a real PG
I’m hoping the other Ishbia brother that’s about to own the White Sox has this same energy and gives Murakami the bag.
another 10 years of nothing burgers guaranteed for phoenix.
Good call. Even as a Mavs/Luka fan, I’m a big Booker fan.
If on a given season my Mavs were out of it, I’d love the Booker-led Suns to get a title. The kind of player he is, this is one of my favorite NBA moments of recent years: https://youtu.be/ORAdihN2iyE?si=uHFtvbsLT6AQ2IGI
Suns ain’t winning a chip with Booker as #1. Said the same thing with Trae on the Hawks.
But I’m glad they’re being loyal to Book.
Then you are going to need a bigger star to get tgere
The rough thing about an owner planting his flag like this is Booker might demand a trade later.
Congrats Devin Booker, now run into that burning building, Mr Ishbia is just behind you, that’s right he’ll definitely go in there with you though don’t worry about it
To the fire you go.
I mean, it’s good to see the owner backing his star player, but it really feels like Ishbia inserted himself too much with the big three era, made a big mess of everything, and has now massively overcorrected by giving Booker an insane contract
lol
Damn booker is gone then!!!!
Then maybe don’t stack the roster with guys who fulfill the same role and play the same position as him. And heres a fucking idea, GET A FUCKING POINT GUARD! We need a power forward too. All this moron has done is throw money at players who don’t fit and trade away assets.
He simply is not lmao
That’s delusional, but I have to respect it.
Im a laker fan and would love to see booker on the lakers some day. Lol. But i like ishbia saying this. It is not enough tho. You need to make trades to help book win one. He is a star.
so what i’m getting is that from the multiple championships he promised he plans to win one with booker, wonder who will lead the suns to the rest 🤔🤔🤔
The west is way too fucked up to be average