Devin Booker unplugged: On Suns’ offseason, haters, motivation and MVP race he’s


Can you have an MVP performance in late November?

The rational mind says yes, even if the recency-bias tendency is a real phenomenon among voters. But all 82 games should play a part in the evaluation, no matter when they take place on the calendar.

Some are bigger because of the stakes, the opponent, or some other circumstance that might brighten the spotlight (e.g. the sensational Steph v. Luka showdown on Tuesday night on the TNT stage). And some, such as the masterpiece Devin Booker turned in against Sacramento on Monday night at the Golden 1 Center, are just so memorable that the mental highlight reel will still be on a loop when the time comes to make a final pick on this front five months from now.

No Chris Paul (again). No Cam Johnson (again). No Jae Crowder (again) — or a Jae Crowder trade, for that matter. Third game in four nights, with his Phoenix squad looking to maintain its early-season momentum against a Kings team that was trying so desperately to light the beam again after dropping two in a row. And Booker, who faced his typical diet of double-teams all night long, finished with 44 points (while hitting just one 3), eight rebounds, four assists and six steals as the Suns held on for the 122-117 win that was their fifth in a row.

Correction: “…as the Western Conference-leading Suns held on for the 122-117 win that was their fifth in a row.”

But here comes the plot twist: As the three-time All-Star insisted during our postgame conversation, he doesn’t believe he’s in the running for the league’s top individual award.

“I’m not even in that race,” Booker, who finished fourth in NBA MVP voting last season after the Suns had the league’s best record, said with a smile while standing near the loading dock. “I just let these people say what they want. Like bro, I focus on hoops only.”

Narrator’s voice: He’s definitely in that race. And he knows it.

Yet while we wound up analyzing his stellar play near the end of the discussion, the initial objective of this latest Booker interview was more team-centric. How, I had wondered, has this team managed to start nearly as well this season (14-6) as they did last season (17-3) despite all the distractions and disappointments they’ve endured these past six months?

A quick refresher course of the (mostly) unwelcome events…

May 15: The Suns lose 123-90 to Dallas in Game 7 of the Western Conference semifinals. As if the lopsided nature of the closeout game wasn’t embarrassing enough, there’s uncomfortableness for all to see late when coach Monty Williams benched big man Deandre Ayton after playing him just 17 minutes. Ayton, of course, had started his season with a similar sense of dissatisfaction when he didn’t get the max extension he believed he deserved.

June 8: As we reported here, the Suns had been dealing with a substantial COVID-19 outbreak during the Mavericks series that included one player (and six individuals total).

July 1: As free agency…

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Read More: Devin Booker unplugged: On Suns’ offseason, haters, motivation and MVP race he’s 2022-11-30 16:03:37

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