According to NBA insider Zach Lowe of ESPN, Devin Booker won’t request a trade from the Phoenix Suns this summer.
ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith said in April that Booker wanted to be traded to the New York Knicks.
However, Lowe is hearing that Booker will remain with the Suns.
“I continue to hear that there is no Devin Booker like trade request coming,” Lowe said on his podcast. “You know, not in the foreseeable future anyway.”
The Suns won 49 games this season but were swept by the Minnesota Timberwolves in the first round of the 2024 playoffs.
Booker will make $49.4 million next season. He signed a four-year, $221 million extension with the Suns in July 2022.
One of the top scorers in the NBA, Booker averaged 27.1 points, 4.5 rebounds and 6.9 assists for the Suns this season while shooting 49.2% from the field, 36.4% from beyond the arc and 88.6% from the free-throw line.
According to NBA insider Gerald Bourguet of PHNX Sports, the Knicks “would be willing to offer almost anything” to the Suns for Booker. New York has been interested in acquiring Booker since 2020.
“According to that source, the Knicks have been interested in Booker dating back to Leon Rose’s instatement as team president back in 2020,” Bourguet wrote. “Rose, a former CAA player agent prior to being hired by New York, once served as Booker’s representation, and other Knicks personnel with connections to the 27-year-old Suns star recently put out feelers about his potential interest in coming to New York.”
Booker, who turns 28 in October, has career averages of 24.3 points, 4.0 rebounds and 5.0 assists. He scored 70 points against the Boston Celtics during the 2016-17 season.
The Suns fired Frank Vogel after one season and hired Mike Budenholzer. The franchise enters the offseason with $209 million in salary, the biggest payroll of any NBA team, and faces a projected luxury tax penalty of $116 million.
