The Devin Booker Supermax Question

[sunsbg]

That would obviously mean guys like Embiid, Jokic, Dame, Luka and Book would be ineligible.

You take Jokic and Luka over Book without thinking twice. You take Book over Dame only because he's younger and you still need to think twice about it. That's if you are about winning and not some Suns fan POV narrative.

[King4Day]

Not sure I agree he's worth it but I do it for 2 reasons.

1. If you don't offer it, you will need to trade him in the next year or so as he'll likely be wanting out.
2. Cap explodes somewhat soon and will make this deal not look so bad.

[lilfishi22]

That would obviously mean guys like Embiid, Jokic, Dame, Luka and Book would be ineligible.

You take Jokic and Luka over Book without thinking twice. You take Book over Dame only because he's younger and you still need to think twice about it. That's if you are about winning and not some Suns fan POV narrative.

Oh I agree 100%. I don't think it's even controversial

[sunsbg]

Book taking some heat for his words in the comments section of below article. Not what one would expect from the "leader" of this team indeed.

https://www.brightsideofthesun.com/2022/6/5/23155708/amid-the-silence-we-get-a-single-tweet-yall-ight

[wco81]

I don't like super max contracts. Players should be capped at 30M tops and the rest of their income should be from merchandise and advertising using their star power.

I certainly don't think Booker is on the same level as Giannis, Jokic and Luka.

I cringe when I think a player like Zach Lavine asking for $200 Million contract. Makes me think rookie MJ was worth $250M and prime MJ at $700M based on impact and talent. In fact MJ could probably justify $200M a year if you include his merchandising and star power.

Seems like there is no set criteria.

Teams will pay their face of the franchise players and if that player can lead them to the playoffs during the life of the extension, not whether they can necessarily lead them to rings.

That is why Wall got his money. Even without his injury, the Wizards were never title contenders but they could make some noise in the playoffs every other year or so.

What happens if Suns let Ayton walk, get little or nothing back? They have 4 seasons invested in him plus the years of losing that led to the top pick.

Suns were title favorites to many entering the playoffs. Ayton, along with the rest of the current roster, may not be good enough to win a title but if they lose him, what happens to their prospects? Can they win 60 games again without him? Can they reach the WCF or the Finals?

It might take a couple of years to replace his production or restructure the team, maybe they are able to acquire another scorer.

Whether Booker is good enough as the #1 player on a title team, I would guess the Suns give him the extension. But depending on what happens to the rest of the team, he may more be like Lillard, the best player on a team which makes the playoffs most years but doesn't get beyond the second round too often.

[Miklo]

He may get it, but I don't think that he should. He's shown some progression in key areas and is undoubtedly one of the most talented players in the league, but he's also shown signs of hitting a ceiling when it comes to the killer instinct that it would take to go all the way. While there are other players on the list of supermax have also not gone further towards a title, many of them have better excuses than Book. This is for sure a really tough decision and it would hurt us for years if we didn't give him a supermax and he walked, but I worry we could be even more crippled by giving it to him. If he then has another year of choking in the playoffs, all of a sudden it gets REALLY hard to move him until his contract expires, and because of the contract it also gets really hard to reset and try a totally different but equally capable supporting cast around him.

[lilfishi22]

He may get it, but I don't think that he should. He's shown some progression in key areas and is undoubtedly one of the most talented players in the league, but he's also shown signs of hitting a ceiling when it comes to the killer instinct that it would take to go all the way. While there are other players on the list of supermax have also not gone further towards a title, many of them have better excuses than Book. This is for sure a really tough decision and it would hurt us for years if we didn't give him a supermax and he walked, but I worry we could be even more crippled by giving it to him. If he then has another year of choking in the playoffs, all of a sudden it gets REALLY hard to move him until his contract expires, and because of the contract it also gets really hard to reset and try a totally different but equally capable supporting cast around him.

All legitimate points. The last time we gave him a max deal, he became a top 10 scorer, followed by being one of the most efficient top 10 scorer, then went on to get selected to three all-star games and an all-NBA first team selection and of course, became one of the two leading figures on two of the best teams in Suns history culminating in a Finals appearance.

If there one guy I would give max money to, it would be the guy who has proven he's all about consistent improvement and has a hellish work ethic. All of these deals are investments, gambles that you make in the hope that you get paid back in more team success and it's been an upward trend since he got his first max deal and while past performance is not an indication of future results, it's good information to have when making that kind of investment in one man.

I mean, ideally CP3, Book and Ayton would all be on like $20m deals so we can surround them with more help but star players are going to get paid like stars, that's the nature of the game

[Frank Lee]

Super star or just a comet? (Shooting star )

[sunsfan1o1]

Devin Booker was underrated for so long. Now the media and everyone has overcorrected and he’s overrated now. I don’t see supermax from this guy but at the same time what are you gonna do.
I wouldn’t say he deserves it but as a franchise you kinda gotta give it.
Ayton deserves max for those same reasons.
James Jones and friends really mismanaged this. Hope he gets it together.

[pj0tr]

You don't give him the supermax right now, you lose him. Pretty simple.

[pj0tr]

Devin Booker was underrated for so long. Now the media and everyone has overcorrected and he’s overrated now. I don’t see supermax from this guy but at the same time what are you gonna do.
I wouldn’t say he deserves it but as a franchise you kinda gotta give it.
Ayton deserves max for those same reasons.
James Jones and friends really mismanaged this. Hope he gets it together.

There hasn't been any overcorrection. Where are you seeing this? lol.

Booker scored back to back 40+ point games in the FInals last year, and... crickets from the media. Jayson Tatum hits a layup and everyone loses their minds.

[Mulhollanddrive]

14 players played 100 minutes in the finals and Booker was ranked last for efficiency.

He has consistantly been about 5 points less efficient than the rest of the team, there are reasons for that but to me a Super Max player overcomes that.

This is just a thought bubble but certain players can go from untouchable to trade them for what you can within a week I wouldn't get super attached to the idea of overpaying a player because you have to.