NBA: Ranking every team’s best player in 2019-20

The Phoenix Suns are going to the well again and again in search of star talent, a sort of unintentional process that has netted a plethora of top draft picks. In 2016 the team added Dragan Bender and Marquese Chriss in the top eight picks and a year later took Josh Jackson in the top five.

Now it is 2019 and all three of those players are on different teams. The same goes for T.J. Warren, shipped to the Indiana Pacers in a salary dump. They sent the rights to Bogdan Bogdanovic, the best player at the 2019 FIBA World Cup a month ago, as part of the deal for Chriss in 2016. This team has a terrible track record in the draft.

The hit for this team came in 2015, when the Suns took Kentucky guard Devin Booker with the 13th pick. He has developed each year he has been in the league, going from an off-ball 2-guard to a ball handler and shot creator to an elite versatile offensive backcourt player. Last season, at 22, he dropped in 26.6 points per game on solid efficiency.

This team is retooling yet again and they hope to have hit on another star in last year’s draft while adding solid veterans this time around. Booker has to show he is more than a “good stats, bad team” level of player. Can he go from elevating his own stats to elevating his team’s play? If so he can go from offensively gifted to true star.

Until then, there are better guards out there able to better affect winning.

Looking ahead: Devin Booker is incredibly young and continues to grow as a player, meaning this spot is unlikely to be vacated for a while. That being said, the Suns invested the first overall pick in Arizona center Deandre Ayton a year ago and they hope he can become the Shaquille O’Neal to Booker’s Kobe Bryant.

If it’s a genuine question a year from now who is this team’s best player that will be a home run for the Suns, because it means Ayton has taken the leap.