The Phoenix Suns’ Big 3 is entering its second season together, but the pairing of Devin Booker and Kevin Durant is now in its third.
Besides the hopes for Bradley Beal being healthier beyond his 53 total appearances last year, Suns fans and the media wonder if Booker and Durant can win the elusive first championship with the Suns’ revamped roster this season. That’s amplified by Booker and Durant possibly replicating their success in the 2025 NBA Finals, after winning the gold medal at the Paris Olympics in August.
At the team’s media day on Monday, Suns owner Mat Ishbia began the news conference discussing the Suns’ memorial jersey band for their late Hall of Fame radio announcer Al McCoy this season, as well as Booker and Durant helping lead Team USA to the gold.
“Two of our superstars being, not only being gold medalists but also key parts of the gold medal team. The stars out there doing amazing things, Devin and Kevin, were both awesome,” Ishbia said. “That’s a real great symbol of the Suns and seeing two of our superstars bring home the gold for our country was really cool.”
The only symbol that matters now is the Larry O’Brien trophy, as Ishbia is willfully spending on the Suns roster deep beyond the NBA’s second tax apron for the second straight year in search of a title.
The Suns’ new coach Mike Budenholzer is refreshed following a year away from the NBA, after the Milwaukee Bucks fired him immediately after their first-round playoff exit in 2023. He led the Bucks to the 2021 title over the Suns, led by Booker, the only player remaining from that NBA Finals roster.
Budenholzer was asked if he can envision Booker and Durant doing for the Suns what Charles Barkley when he first joined the team in June 1992. After Barkley was traded from Philadelphia to Phoenix, he was the leading scorer on the iconic gold medal-winning USA “Dream Team” in the ’92 summer games, won the 1993 NBA MVP, and led the Suns to that year’s NBA Finals before losing to the Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls.
“I had not even realized that Charles Barkley played in ’92 and then it led into (the Finals),” said Budenholzer, an Arizona native who grew up in Holbrook. “I was actually a Suns fan and not in the NBA in ’92, so I remember those Finals vividly. So yeah, let’s go for it. Let’s get Devin Booker to go from gold medalist to NBA Finals. I think the international play can be a springboard to a great season. Being around a lot of international players is really good for those guys and obviously the American guys.”
When Durant left Oklahoma City for Golden State in free agency in July 2016, he won his second Olympic gold medal that summer, and won his first title the next year.
“It’s always good to win and feel winning and understand what goes into it, how much of a grind it is,” Durant said Monday. “Sometimes you go through the motions a bit throughout your career when you haven’t been on that (Olympic) podium. So it was good to refresh the brain a bit, but that’s always the goal when you’ve been in this league so long, and you can have the experience winning and being on top.”
Budenholzer is the third Suns’ coach that will lead Booker and Durant together, after Frank Vogel and Monty Williams.
When Booker spoke to longtime Suns’ broadcaster Tom Leander and their sideline reporter Amanda Pflugrad at Monday’s media day, they asked Booker about his first interaction working with Budenholzer.
“I told him he owes me a ring,” Booker said with a laugh.
Durant turned 36 on Sunday but is playing like he’s still in his prime.
Durant averaged the NBA’s fifth-best 27.1 points per game last season and earned All-NBA Second Team honors. He was Team USA’s third-leading scorer (13.8) on an efficient .540/.519/.938 shooting splits, plus won his Team USA men’s basketball record fourth gold medal and set the all-time leading scorer record for Team USA basketball, men or women.
Durant played in 75 games for the Suns last season, after having the previous four seasons marred by injuries in which he appeared in just 137 games, including missing the entire 2019-20 season after suffering a torn Achilles during the 2019 Finals.
“Kevin’s been great this summer. Sometimes he’ll make a joke or something about his age, but as you saw in the Olympics, or as you saw this last year, I think he played 75 games,” Budenholzer said. “He loves hooping, he loves playing. He and I have kind of started to have a conversation about how do we – ultimately you want to be playing your best basketball and you want to feel great going into the playoffs – how can we be ultra competitive from jump street.”
Booker, 27, is in his 10th season, all with Phoenix, entering the second half of his career. After he received his career’s second All-NBA selection (Third Team) in June, he became Team USA’s “unsung MVP” as their top role player, according to its coach Steve Kerr after they won the gold.
Booker has dealt with injuries throughout his career, including a chronic hamstring injury. He’s learning from Durant how to stay as healthy as possible to lead the Suns in Budenholzer’s new system involving high pace and space to enable raining 3s, which are Durant and Booker’s calling cards.
“I’d say I’m always a sponge,” Booker said. “You’ll see all guys have their different type of ways to stay healthy and KD is obviously somebody that I’ve watching closely going into … what is this 18 (seasons)?”
Booker added, “Chris (Paul) was a guy that was over-obsessive about his body and taking care of his body. So I take bits and pieces from everybody I’m around and just try to implement. But I still do feel really good. I feel l’m reaching those prime type feeling years body-wise.”