Are The Suns Cursed? Book it!

[Mori Chu]

My point is that it's terrible to have to trade Booker to get our own pick back. No shade on Cooper Flagg.

[Split T]

Ya but that’s not really the right way to think about it. Would you feel the same if San Antonio got Flagg with the 1st pick and traded him to us for Booker?

[JustWinBaby]

What a depressing thread

[TOO]

What a depressing 2 seasons

Ftfy

[Mori Chu]

[iLLmatic]

You’re missing the point. The question is whether Booker went downhill after the finals…bringing anyone else into the discussion is irrelevant.

i know what this thread is supposed to be about. i started it
but
if you want to linger on your very specific point
it is true a couple of posters misspoke, technically
--Booker's last regular season with CP3 was probably his best, until the playoff catastrophe

Well it was a direct response to someone saying Booker went downhill after the finals.

Statistically he might be playing on par with the Finals run but I have eyes. It’s not the same Booker. I thought Finals booker was the best shooting guard in the league, a true superstar, nearing a top 10 player, a player that could take a game over. I haven’t seen that Booker since the Finals. There’s glimpses but I’m no longer confident anymore that it can be consistent.

[ShelC]

Bring back that offense where he's off-ball and working in the midrange and post and you'll see Finals Book.

[Split T]

You’re missing the point. The question is whether Booker went downhill after the finals…bringing anyone else into the discussion is irrelevant.

i know what this thread is supposed to be about. i started it
but
if you want to linger on your very specific point
it is true a couple of posters misspoke, technically
--Booker's last regular season with CP3 was probably his best, until the playoff catastrophe

Well it was a direct response to someone saying Booker went downhill after the finals.

Statistically he might be playing on par with the Finals run but I have eyes. It’s not the same Booker. I thought Finals booker was the best shooting guard in the league, a true superstar, nearing a top 10 player, a player that could take a game over. I haven’t seen that Booker since the Finals. There’s glimpses but I’m no longer confident anymore that it can be consistent.

You don’t think the next year when he was 1st team all-nba? Or the playoffs in 2023 when he was putting up prime MJ stats?

[iLLmatic]

You’re missing the point. The question is whether Booker went downhill after the finals…bringing anyone else into the discussion is irrelevant.

i know what this thread is supposed to be about. i started it
but
if you want to linger on your very specific point
it is true a couple of posters misspoke, technically
--Booker's last regular season with CP3 was probably his best, until the playoff catastrophe

Well it was a direct response to someone saying Booker went downhill after the finals.

Statistically he might be playing on par with the Finals run but I have eyes. It’s not the same Booker. I thought Finals booker was the best shooting guard in the league, a true superstar, nearing a top 10 player, a player that could take a game over. I haven’t seen that Booker since the Finals. There’s glimpses but I’m no longer confident anymore that it can be consistent.

You don’t think the next year when he was 1st team all-nba? Or the playoffs in 2023 when he was putting up prime MJ stats?

I’ve watched a player deflect his legacy and team for someone else because he doesn’t want to be the alpha anymore.

[Kryptonic]

i know what this thread is supposed to be about. i started it
but
if you want to linger on your very specific point
it is true a couple of posters misspoke, technically
--Booker's last regular season with CP3 was probably his best, until the playoff catastrophe

Well it was a direct response to someone saying Booker went downhill after the finals.

Statistically he might be playing on par with the Finals run but I have eyes. It’s not the same Booker. I thought Finals booker was the best shooting guard in the league, a true superstar, nearing a top 10 player, a player that could take a game over. I haven’t seen that Booker since the Finals. There’s glimpses but I’m no longer confident anymore that it can be consistent.

You don’t think the next year when he was 1st team all-nba? Or the playoffs in 2023 when he was putting up prime MJ stats?

I’ve watched a player deflect his legacy and team for someone else because he doesn’t want to be the alpha anymore.

Agree…. This city was his, then he handed the reigns to KD who threw them up in the air. This team was like a rudderless boat floundering.

[Mori Chu]

The moderate decline of Booker aligns almost perfectly with the arrival of KD. You bring in multiple guys like this and they diminish each other somewhat. And Book has clearly deferred to KD in scoring, opting to be "Point Book" a lot of nights, choosing to get 20-and-10 over 30-and-4 or whatever.

[iLLmatic]

The moderate decline of Booker aligns almost perfectly with the arrival of KD. You bring in multiple guys like this and they diminish each other somewhat. And Book has clearly deferred to KD in scoring, opting to be "Point Book" a lot of nights, choosing to get 20-and-10 over 30-and-4 or whatever.

The forecast I saw his career moving in has taken a decline and it’s been f**king depressing to watch.

[TOO]

Y'all are so dramatic Jesus Christ

[SunsRIt]

Y'all are so dramatic Jesus Christ

Times 1000

[Mori Chu]

I would understand some of y'all's pessimism about Booker more if we hadn't already successfully built a title contender around him just a few years ago. Book isn't some good-stats, bad-team guy who cannot win. He is capable of being the leading scorer on a title team. You just need the right players with him. And we've now learned, putting two other max-contract score-first players with him and filling out the rest of the roster with minimum guys and exception guys and other riffraff, is not the way to do it.

Of course Booker's stats are a bit down this year; he's playing with two guys who are almost completely redundant with his role. If anything it's admirable that his stats haven't dropped more than they have despite KD and Beal being out there. Just because Book doesn't work well with him and KD and Beal eating up 99% of our cap doesn't mean Book sucks or is washed.

[JeremyG]

I would understand some of y'all's pessimism about Booker more if we hadn't already successfully built a title contender around him just a few years ago. Book isn't some good-stats, bad-team guy who cannot win. He is capable of being the leading scorer on a title team. You just need the right players with him. And we've now learned, putting two other max-contract score-first players with him and filling out the rest of the roster with minimum guys and exception guys and other riffraff, is not the way to do it.

Of course Booker's stats are a bit down this year; he's playing with two guys who are almost completely redundant with his role. If anything it's admirable that his stats haven't dropped more than they have despite KD and Beal being out there. Just because Book doesn't work well with him and KD and Beal eating up 99% of our cap doesn't mean Book sucks or is washed.

Why should his shooting percentages drop? Shouldn’t they be better with KD and Beal? You would think he would be way more open.

[JeremyG]

The moderate decline of Booker aligns almost perfectly with the arrival of KD. You bring in multiple guys like this and they diminish each other somewhat. And Book has clearly deferred to KD in scoring, opting to be "Point Book" a lot of nights, choosing to get 20-and-10 over 30-and-4 or whatever.

The forecast I saw his career moving in has taken a decline and it’s been f**king depressing to watch.

I don’t understand why most fans are in denial about this. He was on a trajectory to be the next franchise superstar/MVP who could carry a team. That’s what everyone thought before 2022.

Does anyone still think he will win an MVP?

[Split T]

Well that might be the problem…I never thought he’d ever be an mvp.

[Split T]

Well it was a direct response to someone saying Booker went downhill after the finals.

Statistically he might be playing on par with the Finals run but I have eyes. It’s not the same Booker. I thought Finals booker was the best shooting guard in the league, a true superstar, nearing a top 10 player, a player that could take a game over. I haven’t seen that Booker since the Finals. There’s glimpses but I’m no longer confident anymore that it can be consistent.

You don’t think the next year when he was 1st team all-nba? Or the playoffs in 2023 when he was putting up prime MJ stats?

I’ve watched a player deflect his legacy and team for someone else because he doesn’t want to be the alpha anymore.

Agree…. This city was his, then he handed the reigns to KD who threw them up in the air. This team was like a rudderless boat floundering.

I think what you guys are actually seeing is the change from Chris Paul to KD(and probably Monty to Vogel/Bud). Book wasn’t some alpha leader of the team before KD came along. He was always just a do his work on the court kind of guy.

[JeremyG]

He was 4th in voting in 2021-22, before the postseason collapse (where nothing was the same afterwards).

So I think “MVP-caliber player” was certainly a widespread belief.