Devin Booker walked into the new season with the same problem he’s been dodging for most of his career: not enough help.
Phoenix got buried from the jump by Portland, and by the time the Trail Blazers put together a 21-0 run to open the game, the Suns were already in a hole they never climbed out of. It was a rough start in every sense.
Booker did what Booker usually does. The rest of the roster did not keep pace.
That’s the part that makes this feel bigger than one ugly opener. On paper, Phoenix has names.
In practice, it doesn’t look like a group built to carry Booker the way a real contender needs a second star to do the heavy lifting. There doesn’t appear to be a true No. 2 option here, and that was impossible to ignore against Portland.
The Suns’ current situation is the product of the path they chose. Matt Ishbia spent the best Booker team he ever had to chase Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal, and that project failed.
Now Phoenix is starting over with no picks and only a few young pieces to work with. Last season, they managed to make it function.
Game 1 against the Blazers felt like a much harsher read on where things really stand.
As the rest of the league keeps moving forward, Phoenix is stuck trying to patch things together. Dillon Brooks is the second-best player.
Miles Bridges. Jalen Green.
Collin Gillespie.
Those are useful players. They can help.
But none of them fit the profile of a second option on a team with playoff expectations. That gap matters, especially when Booker is the one expected to keep the whole thing upright.
And Booker has spent plenty of his career fighting that kind of burden. He has been one of the league’s best shooting guards for nearly a decade, armed with an elite jumper, a vicious mid-range game and the kind of scorer’s edge that never really leaves him. But he also has a long history of being asked to do too much with too little around him.
In those early Phoenix years, Eric Bledsoe was often the next-best name next to him. That isn’t an insult to Bledsoe, who was a pretty good player. It just wasn’t usually the setup you wanted if your goal was winning at a high level.
Booker didn’t reach the playoffs until his sixth season, and by then the Suns had already taken a long route toward respectability. They had the first overall pick in DeAndre Ayton, traded for Chris Paul, and added Mikal Bridges and Cameron Johnson through the draft. That group eventually became a real team, good enough to reach the Finals.
But when that run ended without a title, the floor dropped out. Phoenix has drifted back into a place Booker knows all too well: carrying a roster that looks thin around him and wondering how far he can really take it.
If opening night is any hint, the old Bledsoe-era problem may be back.
In Other News...
Suns Could Be Walking Into A Tougher Portland Opener Than Expected
The Suns 2026-27 opener in Portland already looks like it could carry a little more bite than a typical season-opening road game. The Trail Blazers have overhauled their roster in a major way, headlined by the arrival of Ja Morant and Damian Lillards return from injury, and they now have Mike Nouri in place as their new head coach. For Phoenix, that means a first look at a team that may be trying to prove it is no longer just a rebuilding opponent.
Jeremy Brener points to a Portland group that could be dangerous offensively while still sorting out some defensive questions, which is the kind of mix that can make an opener tricky to predict. Scoot Henderson and Robert Williams III are part of the broader picture too, and with Blazers fans likely to give the building plenty of energy, the Suns may be stepping into a tougher atmosphere than the schedule line suggests. [Read more 🡒]
Suns Center Battle Just Got More Interesting With Khaman Maluach
Khaman Maluach has turned the Suns center competition into one of the more interesting early storylines around Phoenix. Tim Legler singled him out on the All NBA Podcast for the way he carried himself during Summer League, and that kind of praise matters for a young big still trying to carve out his place. Add in the growth he has shown defensively and from three-point range in Summer League and preseason, and it is easy to see why the Suns are paying close attention.
Jordan Ott has already made it clear Maluach is still in the mix to start on opening night, which only adds to the intrigue. He has also handled the opportunity the right way, working with Devin Booker and embracing a team-first approach as he learns the NBA game. For Phoenix, the question is no longer just whether Maluach belongs in the picture, but how far his development can push him in a crowded battle. [Read more 🡒]
Suns Roster Reality Is Getting Harder To Ignore
The Suns place in FanSideds NBA99 serves as a pretty blunt snapshot of where the roster stands right now. Devin Booker checks in at No. 16, Dillon Brooks lands at No. 92, and thats it for Phoenix on the list, a reminder that the teams current core is thin on top-end depth and even thinner when it comes to the next wave of contributors. For a franchise trying to stay competitive in a crowded West, the absence of younger names in that group matters almost as much as who did make it.
It also leaves Phoenix staring at a harder long-term question than it would like to answer. The Suns have already leaned heavily into their veteran nucleus, and with recent additions not moving the needle in these rankings, the margin for error keeps shrinking as Booker and the rest of the core get older. The draft-pick cost of past moves only makes the challenge sharper, because finding cheap young help is usually how a team buys itself a future, and the Suns do not have a lot of that inventory left. [Read more 🡒]