The Phoenix Suns anticipated to be contenders this season, however, after a 124-116 loss to the New Orleans Pelicans on Thursday, they’re 27-32 and eleventh within the West, 3.5 video games behind the Sacramento Kings for the ultimate play-in spot. The loss in opposition to the Pelicans at dwelling was their seventh of their final eight video games and their tenth of their final 12.
Requested how they discovered themselves on this place, Suns star Devin Booker informed reporters, “I would say simply skipping over the main points and at all times taking the get-’em-next-game mentality. Sooner or later, you gotta draw a line, and it ought to’ve been drawn a very long time in the past.”
Booker lamented that, whereas they’d talked earlier than the sport about forcing the Pelicans’ Zion Williamson to his proper hand and bringing assist early on his drives, they did not execute the sport plan. Williamson, who scored 27 factors on 13-for-17 capturing and recorded the primary triple-double of his profession, is a “robust task,” Booker mentioned, however “you continue to need to take away what you see him do each evening.”
This sort of factor is the “story of the season up to now,” Booker mentioned. “It might be mounted with just a bit bit extra speaking, I would say. Issues get robust, we get quiet as a staff, and, from my expertise and what I’ve seen, that is not the best way to get by way of it.”
Booker mentioned that there must be “fixed communication” within the huddles. He mentioned that it begins with him, Kevin Durant, Bradley Beal and coach Mike Budenholzer, however “all people must be on the identical web page” and there ought to be dialog “all through the entire recreation.”
Basically, Booker’s difficulty is that Phoenix has not created an surroundings during which it may possibly remedy issues successfully, and that the staff has not addressed errors as rapidly or straight as he would love.
“I would moderately two individuals say the incorrect factor to one another on the market than no one speak on the market in any respect and go away the grey space,” Booker mentioned. “So it is like all job or any group undertaking that you just do. It’s important to do it collectively.”
Requested if he was implying that he ought to have performed one thing otherwise to drawn the road, Booker mentioned, “Yeah, I at all times take a look at myself first.” He paused for a couple of seconds earlier than including, “However I additionally speak rather a lot.”
On condition that the Suns’ probabilities of even making the play-in are getting slimmer by the day, it’s comprehensible that Booker is pissed off. This has been a profoundly disappointing season in Phoenix — in 1,091 minutes with Booker and Durant on the court docket, it has outscored opponents by simply 2.2 factors per 100 possessions, down from 5.7 per 100 final season and 15.9 per 100 (in simply 180 minutes) in 2022-23.
However there could be extra to this story. On Friday, Chris Haynes reported that Budenholzer had “implored” Booker to be much less vocal “on the court docket and through timeout huddles” so the coach may do extra of the speaking. This reportedly befell weeks in the past and “fully shocked” Booker.
Haynes didn’t straight report that Budenholzer was the supposed viewers for Booker’s postgame feedback and even that Booker was upset or offended after the assembly, solely that the assembly “supplies context” for the press convention. This can be a humorous approach to put it, on condition that Booker’s gripe was a couple of lack of clear and forceful communication.
