Would Devin Booker Be Viewed Differently if Suns Won a Ring?

PHOENIX -- The biggest goal for Phoenix Suns star guard Devin Booker has always been to bring a championship back to the Valley.

Booker and the Suns came up just short in 2021 when they fell to the Milwaukee Bucks after blowing a 2-0 lead, and they have not been able to make it out of the second round since then.

Simply getting to the Finals helped Booker's case on how he stacked up among other guards in the NBA, but that has slowly faded away over time as the Suns have failed to have recent success.

How Perception of Devin Booker Would Be Different If He Had A Ring

Although Booker has been playing more of a combo guard lately, he still finds himself ranked among the top-3 shooting guards in the NBA alongside Anthony Edwards and Donovan Mitchell.

Booker winning a ring would clearly have given him a leg up on these two players specifically given that they have also not won a championship, but Booker's playoff history over the last three years does not stack up well for him against most players after he used to be able to bank on being one of the better playoff risers in the NBA.

Every year, it seems like up-and-coming players surpass Booker on top-100 lists, but it's hard to see that being the case had the Suns won the 2021 championship.

Not only would Booker compare better to current players with a ring, it could have helped him be viewed as a top-15 or even top-10 shooting guard of all time.

Some general NBA fans don't seem to truly see the importance of Booker to the Suns, as he is constantly put in mock trades despite him and the Suns both saying he's not going anywhere.

In a recent article, The Athletic did not put Booker, who is changing his number to 15 this year, in the first tier of players who will definitely have their numbers retired, instead placing him in the second tier, which is titled "almost certain to happen."

"Booker is close to being in Tier 1. Had the Suns beaten the Bucks in the 2021 NBA Finals, he definitely would be," The Athletic's Jason Jones wrote. "But if Steve Nash’s number still hasn’t been retired, maybe Booker will be waiting for a long time, too."

Jones is spot on in terms of how much bringing the Suns their first championship would have helped Booker's legacy, but it still seems fairly obvious No. 1 will never be worn again by a Suns player given how much Booker is love in the Valley and is already the team's all-time leading scorer.

There's still no doubt that winning a championship would change the perception of Booker drastically in how he stacks up against the rest of the league and his value as a franchise mainstay.

Booker has time left to reach his ultimate goal, but it's up to the Suns to try to build a team around him in the final years of his prime, and you never know what will happen with how much parity there has been in the league with eight different champions in the last eight seasons.

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