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Phoenix Suns: Has Devin Booker Made Brandon Knight Expendable?

By Gerald Bourguet

Jan 26, 2016; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker (1) dribbles past Philadelphia 76ers guard Ish Smith (1) during the first half at Wells Fargo Center. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports
Jan 26, 2016; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker (1) dribbles past Philadelphia 76ers guard Ish Smith (1) during the first half at Wells Fargo Center. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports /
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Phoenix Suns
Jan 2, 2016; Sacramento, CA, USA; Phoenix Suns guard Brandon Knight (3) walks to the sideline during the fourth quarter of the NBA game against the Sacramento Kings at Sleep Train Arena. The Kings won 142-119. Mandatory Credit: Godofredo Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports /

Other Factors

However, it’s not quite as simple as “Devin Booker is good and young, Brandon Knight has been bad, so get rid of Brandon Knight.” There are a number of factors that need to be considered — though most of them do indicate Phoenix might be better off leaning toward Booker moving forward.

For one thing, Knight has only been with the team for 53 games. Between his own injuries and Bledsoe’s, these two haven’t had as much time to build backcourt chemistry as the Suns would have liked. It wasn’t that long ago that Knight was a borderline All-Star with the Milwaukee Bucks, averaging 17.8 points, 5.4 assists and 4.3 rebounds per game on 40.9 percent shooting from downtown.

Another key reason the Suns might be hesitant to make any hasty decisions regarding Knight? They just signed him to a five-year, $70 million contract extension over the summer, and with Bledsoe also locked in for the long-term, general manager Ryan McDonough remains committed to the dual point guard system that was so successful with Bledsoe and Goran Dragic.

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The Phoenix Suns should enquire about "FIBA Kobe"
The Phoenix Suns should enquire about "FIBA Kobe" /

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    • But rather than wait out the duration of those contracts to try and see if Bledsoe and Knight can recreate that same magic (SPOILER ALERT: they probably can’t), the team’s lost season should be a fair indicator that building from the middle is a brutal way to assemble a title contender.

    The Suns have lost 19 of their last 21 games, but even before Bledsoe’s injury culminated in an embarrassing loss to the 1-30 Philadelphia 76ers, Phoenix sat outside the Western Conference playoff picture at 12-20. Half a season is a small sample size, but McDonough has to see that the roster he assembled is not built for greatness.

    With the goal of bringing Phoenix its first NBA championship in mind, McDonough may have to make the difficult decision to strip down his roster again, stockpile more young players and future draft picks, and commit to taking the long-term approach to building a title contender.

    Negotiating a trade for Knight would be no easy task given his current groin injury and depreciating value in the eyes of many around the league, but McDonough could turn him, Markieff Morris, Mirza Teletovic and/or P.J. Tucker into value of some sort. Tyson Chandler would be difficult to move given the three years remaining on his contract, but also not impossible.

    Given Booker’s incredibly high ceiling at the 2, Knight’s struggles to fit in on both ends of the floor, and the fact that there’s already a logjam at the 2 between Knight, Booker, Archie Goodwin, Sonny Weems and the soon-to-arrive Bogdan Bogdanovic, something has got to give.

    If McDonough makes the difficult decision to accept this lost season, tank for a top-five draft pick and reconstruct the roster, blowing it all up might start with Brandon Knight.

    Next: The Verdict

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