Why Devin Booker and the Phoenix Suns are the NBA bubble’s best story

Winning out doesn’t guarantee anything

The Suns aren’t assured of anything, even if they go 8-0 in the bubble. Even now after all this winning and work, FiveThirtyEight’s projections give them a 12 percent shot at the playoffs (their RAPTOR model gives them eight percent).

The Portland Trail Blazers and San Antonio Spurs may both end up the Suns’ mortal enemy in this chase as it’s just a lot of teams to get through in order to climb that ladder to No. 9 in the West, but there’s a nobility to taking care of business and beating everybody who is put in front of you if the Suns can do it.

Devin Booker is a winner after all

It’s time to put to rest the theory that Devin Booker isn’t a winner no matter how the rest of the bubble goes for the Suns, but propelling his team to the playoffs would go a long way to solidifying this.

Booker is 23 years old and is already becoming the player the Suns hoped he would become when they drafted him 13th in 2015. He’s an offensive superstar and his defense isn’t a gaping negative anymore. Judging a young player as somebody who can’t win at the NBA level when he was surrounded for years by poor supporting casts is a silly and lazy supposition, and Devin Booker is proving this in the NBA’s bubble.