Wild Trade Proposal Sends Suns' Devin Booker to West Rival

The Phoenix Suns are heading into the 2026-27 season in a precarious position. The consensus seems to agree that the team is poised to return to the playoffs, but no real championship aspirations are being set.  This feeds perfectly into continued narratives that the Suns need to completely buy-in on hitting the "reset" button, which includes moving on from franchise player Devin Booker. Booker, 29, is in the middle of his prime and would snatch the Suns multiple first-round picks, but moving on from a player that means so much to a city/franchise isn't that simple. A trade proposal from Jonah Kubicek of Full Court Press would replenish the Suns' war chest of draft picks, but it would come at a great cost. In this scenario, the Suns would receive De'Aaron Fox and four first round picks, while the Suns would move Booker to the San Antonio Spurs. The rationale here is that the Suns would be committing to re-upping draft capital that they had previously lost despite San Antonio not being in control of many of those picks. The Spurs would also be a premier contender while they are in control of their picks, lessening the impact of Phoenix reeling in picks.  The other downside is that the Suns would be tied to Fox for four more seasons. The 2017 top-five pick would be a fine pick-up in the event that he was in control of a reasonable contract. This isn't the case here. Fox is owed $221 million over the next four seasons, including $61 million in the 2029-30 season. General manager Brian Gregory would be committing much capital to a player that is already arguably in decline. The draft picks Phoenix would be receiving wouldn't incentivize tanking, either. This seems to be the makings of a trade that would keep Phoenix in neutral with an even more unfavorable contract than Booker's is at the moment. The rationale of trading Booker while his value is still high is a sound approach to take, but it just doesn't make sense for Phoenix to entertain this trade at the moment. The trade for forward Miles Bridges confirmed that the organization is committed to taking measured steps to return to contention, and whatever Phoenix receives back in draft capital gets inherently weakened by the NBA's new draft lottery system.  Don't expect Booker to be on the move anytime soon.