Game Day (Playoffs Round 1, Game 3): Thunder (2-0) @ Suns (0-2), Sat 4/25/26

[Shabazz]

Ayo Dosunmu would be a really good backcourt complement to Booker.

[Charlie Smithy!]

Ayo Dosunmu would be a really good backcourt complement to Booker.

I've just love how that name sounds like a lethal martial art

[Charlie Smithy!]

and fuck Caruso too

... until he has hemorrhoids!!

[Superbone]

Bradley Beal bad is too far..but I am dissapointed…he clearly doesn’t want to be the guy…I like that he’s willing to play within the flow of the offense…but there’s times we need him to step up and he either doesn’t want to or can’t anymore.

He was passing up wide open threes.

[Superbone]

I think you use game 7 to give Fleming and Maluach some playoff experience. This series is over, time to tell them "this is to say you're a big part of our plans next year" and see how they respond.

I actually think Oso did a credible job today, Holmgren certainly didn't dominate him. He's got a of of things to work on, starting with getting stronger and his free throw shooting.

I hate to break it to you but we ain't making it to a game 7.

[iLLmatic]

[The Bobster]

I think you use game 7 to give Fleming and Maluach some playoff experience. This series is over, time to tell them "this is to say you're a big part of our plans next year" and see how they respond.

I actually think Oso did a credible job today, Holmgren certainly didn't dominate him. He's got a of of things to work on, starting with getting stronger and his free throw shooting.

I hate to break it to you but we ain't making it to a game 7.

Or game 5.

[ShelC]

Postgame Quotes and Videos

Spoiler: show/hide

[Superbone]

I think you use game 7 to give Fleming and Maluach some playoff experience. This series is over, time to tell them "this is to say you're a big part of our plans next year" and see how they respond.

I actually think Oso did a credible job today, Holmgren certainly didn't dominate him. He's got a of of things to work on, starting with getting stronger and his free throw shooting.

I hate to break it to you but we ain't making it to a game 7.

Or game 5.

But yeah, play the youth for our final game on Monday.

[Superbone]

Spoiler: show/hide

Drenchman ain't wrong. Book has lost his killer instinct and aggressiveness. He's taking "unselfishness" and team ball way too far. It's like he doesn't even want to shoot any more. Passing out of wide open shots. Not sure what happened to him.

[JJ Slim]

I think you use game 7 to give Fleming and Maluach some playoff experience. This series is over, time to tell them "this is to say you're a big part of our plans next year" and see how they respond.

I actually think Oso did a credible job today, Holmgren certainly didn't dominate him. He's got a of of things to work on, starting with getting stronger and his free throw shooting.

I hate to break it to you but we ain't making it to a game 7.

Or game 5.

But yeah, play the youth for our final game on Monday.

Exactly! Just call it a season, play the young guys and play with pride at home as the last game.

[Mori Chu]

Drenchman ain't wrong. Book has lost his killer instinct and aggressiveness. He's taking "unselfishness" and team ball way too far. It's like he doesn't even want to shoot any more. Passing out of wide open shots. Not sure what happened to him.

Do we think he is playing hurt? If so, maybe what he's doing makes sense. But otherwise he has really become too passive to the point that it is hurting the team.

[Superbone]

Drenchman ain't wrong. Book has lost his killer instinct and aggressiveness. He's taking "unselfishness" and team ball way too far. It's like he doesn't even want to shoot any more. Passing out of wide open shots. Not sure what happened to him.

Do we think he is playing hurt? If so, maybe what he's doing makes sense. But otherwise he has really become too passive to the point that it is hurting the team.

Yeah, hard to say. I hope that is the case but even so I'd think he would still take wide open shots but maybe he doesn't have confidence in his shot on a bad ankle. He took one three in the first half that was WAY off. If he is hurt, I think they'd be better just playing without him. I don't think this Devin Booker is a positive for the team. In fact, the +/- shows that he is not. He was the most negative of all starters.

[BKinSJC]

It just feels like Booker knows he won't draw any real criticism from the team, from the local media, or from most of the fans in the Valley. He's content to just get through the season, maybe make the playoffs, get killed in the first round if he does, collect his checks and go on to the next. He's not improving any more, and he hasn't for about five years now. Seems like he is what he is, at this point.

[Superbone]

It just feels like Booker knows he won't draw any real criticism from the team, from the local media, or from most of the fans in the Valley. He's content to just get through the season, maybe make the playoffs, get killed in the first round if he does, collect his checks and go on to the next. He's not improving any more, and he hasn't for about five years now. Seems like he is what he is, at this point.

We've got five more years on his contract. Enjoy the ride. Best we can do is put the right pieces around him. You're right, we've seen the best of Devin Booker. The rest is downhill from here. Let's just hope our young guys can step up along with the FO making the right roster moves.

[The Bobster]

I think you have to listen to offers for Booker. They may not want to actively shop him around, but you have to listen at this point.

[Kryptonic]

I'll never understand this "ride or die" with Book attitude... This fan base evidently would rather have a "cool guy" than a freaking championship. Stop treating this like a city league team with all your buds and we might get somewhere.

[O_Gardino]

Wild how we go from criticizing Booker for too much hero ball to criticizing him for moving the ball too much. Don't get me wrong; both have been true. He had a great stretch in March, but it was a short stretch. He otherwise hasn't really found his place in the offence this season.

[Mori Chu]

It's too bad because I don't think Ishbia is anywhere near considering trades for Booker. I think he loves how Book is the franchise scoring leader and wants him to spend his whole career (or at least all of his prime and post-prime) as a Sun. In theory that'd be nice, but if we can't put a decent team together around him, what's the point?

I am not eager to trade Booker, but I think this is the season I moved from "no way" to "at least take the calls." If a team threw a treasure chest of picks and young talent at us, I would have to listen. The fact that our cupboard of 1st round draft picks is so bare until 2031 makes me worry a lot for the future of the team, despite our impressive season. I don't see any direct way for us to make a leap from our current ~ 7-8th seed status to a top-4 team in the West. We aren't going to get any blue chip talent, and if anything, we're going to have a hard time even keeping this current team together with all the free agency decisions coming up this summer. (For example we may lose Mark Williams and may need to trade Grayson Allen or Royce O'Neale.) And we have very few draft picks, and most of the ones we do have are swapped or double-swapped and are basically guaranteed to be in the #20-30 range. I don't see how that team gets to contending status. We'd have to hit an absolute home run in terms of a draft pick miracle or some FA signing/trade.

We had a string of years with Jason Kidd leading the team, around the late '90s and early '00s, where we had a plucky group of veterans who played hard and gave their all, and we would pretty consistently get the 7-8 seed and get wrecked in the 1st round of the playoffs every year. We would come to refer to that as the "malaise" era. That feels like the ceiling of the current era to me. Back then, we eventually did something about it, shipping out our big star (Kidd) and other players for a cache of players and picks that rebuilt our team. Will we have the guts to do that again?

[specialsauce]

I'll never understand this "ride or die" with Book attitude... This fan base evidently would rather have a "cool guy" than a freaking championship. Stop treating this like a city league team with all your buds and we might get somewhere.

Tell em