Booker became the biggest loser among young superstars, and the Suns recruited many superstars for him

On June 9, Devin Booker's name has always been closely linked to the label of "The Greatest Future" in the past few years. The shooting guard, who was 13th in the first round in 2015, led the Suns to the finals as early as 2021, once gave Phoenix fans the hope of revival. However, four years later, when Doncic, who was the same age, held the MVP trophy and Tatum wore the championship ring, the 27-year-old Booker fell into an embarrassing situation - he may be the "most expensive loser" among the new generation of superstars.

###The superstars gathered but it was difficult to hide the system rifts

The Suns' trading in 2020 was once regarded as a stroke of magic. The joining of this traditional point guard allowed Booker to experience the playoffs for the first time, and also created the best record in team history in 2021. But the truth revealed by the data is interesting: When Paul missed the 2022 Western Conference semi-finals due to injury, Booker scored 35 points in a single game but made 7 turnovers, and his shooting percentage plummeted to 39% in the last three games of the series. This exposed Booker's fatal shortcomings as the core of the ball-holding - he needed a commander like Paul to cover up the lack of organizational capabilities.

The subsequent "Superstar Collection Plan" launched by the management is more like a big gamble. After Durant joined, Booker's average number of touches per game dropped sharply from 75.3 to 62.1, but the usage rate remained at a high of 31.5%. This contradiction of "concentrated ball rights but inefficient" is particularly obvious in the 2023 playoffs: when Durant scored 39 points in the second round of G6, Booker scored 23 points for only 8 of 21 shots, with a low of -18 in the game. Bill's joining this year made the problem worse. When the Big Three appeared at the same time, the Suns' net winning score fell by 4.7 points in 100 rounds, proving that this is not a simple running-in problem.

###Technical defects are enlarged in high-end

Compared with other new generation leaders, Booker's skill package has obvious flaws. Doncic can create 1.12 points per round when double-teamed this season. Tatum accounts for 43% of the Celtics system without the ball, while Booker's two figures are only 0.89 points and 28% respectively. When the opponent implements targeted defense in the playoffs, he cannot get rid of defense without the ball like a traditional point guard, and also lacks the perspective of a modern double-season guard. The first round of 2024 was swept by the Timberwolves. Facing McDaniels' death entanglement, Booker made 9 of 32 three-pointers in four games, with an assist-and-turnover ratio of 1.6:1. What is even more worrying is the defensive end, with his shooting percentage against players soaring from 44.1% in the regular season to 51.3% in the playoffs. These data confirm the early warning of the scout report that year: "Mediocre athletic ability may limit its ceiling."

### Management's strategic myth

Sun boss Ishbiya's radical strategy is worth discussing. In order to form the trio of "Book + Durant + Bill", the team sent away high-quality puzzles such as Bridges and Cameron Johnson, and there is only one first-round pick left for trading in the next seven years. This "win in the present" gambling has led to a serious imbalance in the lineup: Currently, the top five players in the Suns are all outside, but only Nurkic and basic-paying veteran Eubanks are rotated in the inside. The problem of locker room is also gradually emerging. According to local Arizona media reports, Durant expressed public dissatisfaction with the team's over-reliance on singles tactics, and Bill's disagreement with the coaching staff over role positioning lasted throughout the season. When a team has three scorers who require a lot of ball holding, but lacks real organizers and defensive gates, the deterioration of the chemical reaction is almost an inevitable outcome.

###Brutal contrast of historical status

Open the NBA yearbook, the age of 27 should be the golden age for superstars to harvest honors. Kobe has won three championships at this age, Wade has won the FMVP, and Harden is embarking on his three-year consecutive scoring journey. On the other hand, Booker, except for one and two All-Stars, his honor room was empty. Even compared with the same class, Towns (3 All-Stars) and Porzingis (Champion), Booker's achievements seem thin.

Suns legend Barkley's recent comment came to the forefront: "Dervin is an excellent scorer, but great players need to do two things - make teammates better, and continue to output in May and June." This sentence pointed directly at the life of Booker's career: he has not proven that he can carry the entire team on the highest stage. When the Suns stopped in the second round again in the 2025 playoffs and the team faced a double crisis of luxury tax explosion and aging lineup, there was really not much time left for Booker to prove himself.

Looking back in the summer of 2025, the Suns' experiment is very similar to the Nets in 2013 - piled up balloon stars, overdraw future assets, and pursue real-time combat power. But basketball is not a simple addition game after all. When your core players have technical shortcomings and when your team building ideas violate the laws of modern basketball, no matter how gorgeous the paper lineup is, it will not escape the fate of failure. For Booker, perhaps what he needs is not the next superstar teammate, but a complete self-innovation.