The Phoenix Suns have impressed the NBA world after quickly climbing into the top-four of the Western Conference with a 5-2 record. Devin Booker, the team's star shooting guard, has owed the Suns' success to the hiring and consequent leadership of new coach Monty Williams, who has instilled a new culture that is quickly showing results in Phoenix.
“His quote to me was, ‘Everything you want is on the other side of hard,’ ” Booker told Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated. “When he says that, it’s not a basketball statement. It’s a mental statement. A hard work statement. It locks me in every time.”
Booker has taken Williams’ words and put them to practice, but after four coaches in the last four years, the Suns' phenom was right to be skeptical at first.
“I’m the type of person that can read somebody and their eye contact,” said Booker. “He has plans for this team and we’re following him. …
“I’m behind him. Totally behind. But I feel the same energy from him to me. So, to have somebody believe in me that much, it helps you out mentally when I am out there.”
The Suns organization has been a revolving door of names and titles, moving from stars like Eric Bledsoe (who was coming off his best all-around NBA season) to a slew of coaches in the past five years, to canning general manager Ryan McDonough days before the start of the 2018-19 season.
However, Booker is sensing a very different vibe with the arrival of Williams — who had not been the head coach of an NBA team since 2015 with the New Orleans Pelicans.
“You can feel the vibe here. It’s different,” Booker said. “Our team is in a different state than we have been in the previous years. I don’t want to get ahead of myself. … But the culture around, you can feel it. You can feel it in the air. It started with Monty.
“His voice travels. I’ve been in situations before where things coaches say are kind of discussed amongst players. But with Monty, it’s not like that. We all believe in him. He believes in us at the same time. It’s really contagious.”
The Suns have put winning players around Booker by signing Ricky Rubio, keeping Kelly Oubre Jr. in free agency, and trading for Aron Baynes — but Williams' voice rings true in all the aforementioned, making him a key part of this recipe that seems to have hit the spot for a struggling organization.
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