The Phoenix Suns have already gone through quite a bit of turmoil just a month into the season. They’ve fired their head coach and traded away one of their main stars in Eric Bledsoe. Those moves would probably lead some to question the direction the Suns are headed in once again.
According to ESPN’s Nick Friedell, though, young Suns star Devin Booker believes the team is still right on track long-term, in large part because of the promising young core they've assembled.
“For us, we have to keep developing, and we know that. We have a really good young core that is competing against grown men. The Golden State Warriors, San Antonio Spurs, teams that have been together for five, 10-plus years. So I think we're right on track, honestly. In a few years with the experience that we have, with the young core that we have, we'll be in a good spot.”
Booker and TJ Warren have certainly been performing with a lot of promise this season. They recently went for 35 points apiece in the same game, the first Suns teammates to do so since Steve Nash and Amare Stoudemire. Rookie Josh Jackson has also shown some flashes of his potential.
However, the same can’t be said about a couple key pieces of their core, Marquese Chriss and Dragan Bender. After both being drafted in the top 10 of last year’s draft, the two young forwards have still not been able to show much consistency in their second years in the league.
Granted, Bender and Chriss are still just 19 and 20 years old, respectively, and could yet develop into the stars the Suns were hoping they’d be. But if neither does pan out, the “good spot” Booker believes the Suns will be in in the future will get appreciably worse.
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