Morality is not worthy of position! You are not worthy of 149.8 million in 2 years, so the team will completely close the championship window

As we all know, as the broadcast contracts signed by the NBA become larger and larger, the league's salary cap is getting higher and higher, and the players' income has been able to rise. Now there are players with annual salary of 30 to 40 million yuan everywhere in the league, and the annual salary of many stars has exceeded 50 million yuan. In the future, like Towns, Embiid, Tatum and others, their annual salary will exceed 60 million US dollars.

But this is not the end. After some stars sign renewal contracts this offseason, their current annual salary record will be broken again. For example, Alexander will be eligible to sign a 5-year, 380 million super maximum salary with the Thunder this summer. In this way, from the 2027-2028 season, his lowest annual salary will be 65.5 million in a year, and in the last year his annual salary will be as high as 86.5 million. However, considering that Alexander is only 26 years old this season, even if the Thunder really gives him this contract, he is worthy of it. In addition, everyone can see his team-leading results this year. If you continue to build a team around him in the future, the Thunder's championship window will not be closed.

But obviously not every star deserves such treatment. Some stars sign super top salary to a premium contract. In the past, such examples have appeared in the NBA, the most obvious of which is Bill. In 2022, Bill signed a five-year, 251 million contract with the Wizards, but he soon became "exposed". After joining the Suns, he was unable to fulfill his value. At the same time, because he still held the veto power of the transaction, the team could not get rid of his garbage contract. In this way, he directly consumed the Suns to the point where he had to put Durant on the trading shelves to prepare for reorganization of the lineup.

It is worth mentioning that the Suns are now on the surface, and the news that highlights their choice is that according to reporter Marc Stein, the Suns will most likely offer an early contract renewal contract for another core of the team, Devin Booker, with a total value of up to $149.8 million in two years. In this way, Booker will stay with the Suns until at least 2030, and by then, he will receive an annual salary of nearly $80 million, who is already in his 30s.

However, obviously Booker is not a star of Alexander. He has never been involved in his career. In the past season, Booker averaged 25.6 points, 4.1 rebounds and 7.1 assists per game in the regular season. Although this is still very outstanding in the NBA, considering that the Suns have not even scored in the playoffs this year, his data is not very valuable.

But the most important thing is that Booker's data is not worthy of this super maximum salary of 149.8 million. If you look closely at his game, the content of the game he showed is not as good as a superstar. 28-year-old Booker, since he has never been good at physical fitness, his breakthrough has always been his weakness on the offensive end. Because of his lack of explosive power, he cannot easily get rid of defensive players. Booker relies very much on the center's pick-and-roll screen quality and shooters to open up space. Looking back at the years when the Suns were at their peak, they had Ayton inside, and there were also shooters like Bridges and Johnson on the outside. In many cases, even Booker was not the first ball holding point. If Paul held the ball, he started without the ball, which greatly reduced the difficulty of his scoring.

But since the Suns traded to Durant and Bill, it is becoming increasingly difficult for Booker to score now, and because of the overlap with Durant and Bill's playing style, he had no choice but to temporarily change his playing style and transform into the No. 1 position. However, the result of this change is obviously not ideal. Booker does not have the ability to play point guard. On the one hand, he does not have enough threat to break through the opponent's defensive formation and creates opportunities for his teammates by relying on his own efforts. On the other hand, he is born without a football dealer like Paul, so his playing point guard cannot bring more help to the team at the tactical level.

There are also problems caused by the deformed lineup. Although players like Durant and Bill are considered to have both ball-free, this scale is difficult to grasp. It is impossible for them to be able to assign the ball to them all the time in a game. Especially considering that when Booker holds the ball on the court, his instinct is still scored by himself, so he cannot do a good job in leading these two star teammates.

There is also defense. We mentioned earlier that Booker's physical fitness is average, so this leads to him not having an advantage on the defensive end. Originally, Paul, Bridges, Johnson, and Crowder in the Suns' starting lineup could all "wipe the butt" for Booker, but in the current starting lineup, Bill, Durant, and Jones also need other teammates to help defend. Durant may be a little better, but he is older after all. At the age of 36, he cannot do his best on both offense and defense every game in the regular season. So if someone can help him paddle on the defensive end, it is a good thing for him and the team, but it is obvious that the Suns do not have the ability to do this.

Overall, Booker's current flaws on both offense and defense are very obvious. It is very difficult to build a team with him as the first core. On the one hand, they can reach the finals in 2021 because they have certain strength, but in fact they cannot do without luck. The first round of Thick Brow was injured, the second round of the Nuggets team played in the Nuggets, and the Western Conference Finals were the Clippers without Leonard. Therefore, it can be said that the injury bonus they received that year was still relatively obvious.

It is not easy for Booker to reach this level. After all, his physical fitness is there, so what the Suns have to do now is to recognize the situation as soon as possible. They must know that it is basically impossible to win the championship with Booker as the first core, especially considering the current situation of the team. If you give another maximum salary of 149.8 million in two years, it will completely close your window for championships in the next five years..

As for the current lineup of the Suns, they might as well choose to rebuild directly, put Booker and others on the trading shelves to exchange for the future. After Bill's big contract is over, they can almost end the reconstruction. Then cultivate a new core, and this path is much more reliable than choosing to keep Booker and Bill to continue to win the championship.