The Phoenix Suns’ backcourt plan feels like déjà vu

Point Book…tell me if you’ve heard that one before…

Those who do not know their history are doomed to repeat it. You know it. I know it. But somehow, the Phoenix Suns still don’t.

Point Book. It’s a concept we’ve lived with for nearly a decade. Flashes of brilliance, stretches of frustration. And while it works in moments, history has shown us that leaning on Devin Booker as your primary playmaker is more burden than blueprint.

Yet here we are again.

All signs point to a familiar thesis for next season’s Suns: Booker at the point, this time flanked by Jalen Green. New faces, same idea. Brian Gregory has spoken about his vision for the backcourt, and once again, it seems the offense will flow through Booker, not just as a scorer, but as a facilitator.

“I think there’s a speed factor that’s being played in the NBA right now,” Suns’ general manager said as he justified a Booker/Green backcourt on Monday. “They’re both great with the ball. I think they can play off each other when they don’t have the ball.”

“I think our style of play,” he added, “playing at a faster pace with better movement, is going to open up the court for both of them.”

Again, it sounds good in theory.

Last season, even with Tyus Jones as the nominal point guard, it was Devin Booker who led the team in assists, averaging a career-high 7.1 per game. The playmaking is there. It’s real. And that’s what Brian Gregory plans to lean into this season.

But that strategy has cracks in it.

Gregory wants this team to play with pace. To get out in transition. To apply pressure, attack downhill, and force the defense on its heels. On paper, that’s a great plan, especially if the goal is to shift the identity of this team. After all, the teams that gave Phoenix the most trouble last season were the ones who played fast, stayed aggressive, and weaponized youth and effort against an aging roster.

So yes, adopting that approach makes sense.

But the flaw in the logic reveals itself when the game slows down. When pace disappears, when possessions tighten, and execution matters more than energy. Because in those moments, when the defense is set and every decision carries weight, the idea of Point Book starts to crack.

Devin Booker does many things at an elite level. But navigating pressure, specifically blitzes at the point of attack, has never been his strong suit. We’ve seen it repeatedly. The most glaring example came in 2024, when the Suns leaned fully into the positionless model with Booker and Bradley Beal as their backcourt.

Teams had a simple strategy: blitz Booker the moment he crossed half court. Don’t let him breathe. Force the ball out of his hands and force Phoenix into chaos.

It worked.

Booker hesitated. The traps disrupted his rhythm, collapsed spacing, and led to a flurry of turnovers and broken possessions. That wasn’t a one-off. It was something teams did repeatedly.

So while the concept of Point Book sounds polished in a press conference, while it makes sense in theory and looks brilliant for stretches, it can’t be the foundation. Not if your goal is sustainable, high-level offense. Not if your ambition is to win when the lights are brightest.

This isn’t a knock on Booker. It’s an honest assessment of his strengths and limitations. Use him as a playmaker in spurts? Absolutely. Empower him to create in transition or against mismatches? Of course. But build your entire offensive identity around it? That’s a gamble we’ve seen before. And it’s one the Suns should know better than to take again.

And I keep coming back to the same core truth, one that’s as simple as it is frustrating: Point Book doesn’t put your best player in a position to succeed.

Devin Booker is not a point guard. He never has been. To his credit, he’s stepped into that role when asked. He’s facilitated. He’s adapted. He’s been the good soldier, doing whatever the team needed, even when it meant sacrificing his own strengths. But that doesn’t make it right. And as he enters the heart of his prime, the Suns are once again choosing to miscast their franchise cornerstone.

They’re asking a Ferrari to plow fields.

I’m not opposed to the concept of Point Book, at least on the defensive end. Yes, both he and Jalen Green form an undersized backcourt, but what stands behind them is where the balance lies: a wall of length, athleticism, and defensive versatility. As Brian Gregory pointed out, that foundation gives Booker and Green the freedom to gamble, to jump passing lanes, to disrupt.

“I do think that you’re going to see our ability on the defensive end with more perimeter pressure that both those guys,” Gregory stated. “Their ability off the ball as other guys are pressuring the ball to play passing lanes and to read things, they both have unbelievable anticipatory skills defensively.”

So again, on the defensive end, it’s not that big of a concern.

I think back to the Booker and Chris Paul-led teams. Those lineups where Mikal Bridges, Jae Crowder, and Deandre Ayton anchored the defense behind them. That structure allowed the guards to be more aggressive at the point of attack, to gamble a bit more, knowing they had a reliable safety net behind them. In theory, this current Suns team is built the same way: long, athletic defenders behind an undersized backcourt, ready to cover ground.

But offensively? That’s where the concept of Point Book starts to fall apart.

Booker is one of the best off-ball shooting guards in the NBA. Movement. Catch-and-shoot. Relocating off screens. Attacking closeouts. That’s his domain. That’s where he thrives. That’s where he breaks defenses. But for the third straight season, Phoenix is choosing to ask him to be something else.

Last year? He was bumped to small forward, stuck in the corner while Bradley Beal and Tyus Jones ran the backcourt. The year before that? Point Book again. And now? Here we go. Again. We’re really doing this? We’re really about to talk ourselves into mispositioning our best player again?

It’s like putting Charles Barkley at shooting guard. Or running Steve Nash off the ball in the corner. It’s basketball malpractice. And for a team that keeps saying it’s all-in on maximizing this window, it sure doesn’t look like it.

Because at the end of the day, if you don’t know your history, you’re doomed to repeat it. And in Phoenix, the lessons are right there. On film. In box scores. And most damningly, in playoff exits.

Devin Booker can be your point guard.

But if you want to win, he shouldn’t be.

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