Devin Booker on being surrounded by young players on Suns
Devin Booker, once a young phenom, is now a veteran surrounded by young players: “It’s a lot of jokes.”
Devin Booker remembers this.
The Phoenix Suns opened the 2022-23 season playing the Portland Trail Blazers three times in their first nine games with the eighth and ninth games back-to-back in Phoenix.
They went 1-2 in those games against the Blazers.
Phoenix has a similar start to this season’s schedule.
The Suns (4-5) are facing the Los Angeles Clippers (3-5) for the third time in their first 10 games Nov. 8 at Intuit Dome.
They just battled Nov. 6 with the Suns winning, 115-102, in Phoenix. The Clippers won the first matchup, 129-102, last month at home.
Booker is cool with the scheduling.
“I think it’s good for us as a young team to learn that, especially with (Clippers coach Ty Lue), teams that are going to make adjustments,” he said after Saturday’s morning shootaround at Intuit Dome. “Kind of playoff vibe where you’re not going to see the same thing that we saw the first game. You can feel the difference between home and away. We’ve got to come steal one today.”
Phoenix (4-5) is just one game below .500 despite Jalen Green only playing one game, with that being on a minute restriction, Dillon Brooks seeing action in just three games and Mark Williams still on a minute restriction.
Green made his Suns debut in the team’s Nov. 6 win after missing the first eight games with a right hamstring strain. Brooks has sat Phoenix’s last six games with a core muscle strain and is listed as questionable for the Nov. 8 matchup.
“I feel like we should’ve lost at most three games so far even with what we’ve been going through,” Booker said.
The Suns lost four straight games after winning their season opener with the last two losses coming in overtime at Utah and a 114-113 home defeat against Memphis.
“We have a lot to learn, but health is key,” Booker continued. “Availability is key. So we got to make sure everybody is ready to go, but everyone is still locked in, even when they’re not playing. They’re involved, they’re around the team and we’re still developing that chemistry even when we’re not on the court together.”
Williams is now questionable with an illness as he wasn’t on the team’s initial injury report released Nov. 7.
Have opinions about the current state of the Suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at dmrankin@gannett.com or contact him at 480-810-5518. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @DuaneRankin.
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