If Devin Booker were a book, he’d be the kind that never leaves the bestseller list… the franchise hero with the clutch endings, the plot twists, and the perfect pull-up jumper for the closing chapter. But even the best stories get bogged down by clunky supporting characters. For the last few months, Phoenix’s front office has been trying to figure out if Jalen Green was a plot device that actually moved the story forward or one that made readers flip to the next chapter faster. Turns out, the Suns may have found their answer.

And it involves ripping out a few pages and replacing them with a whole new subplot. The proposed trade, floating around courtesy of @phnx_suns on IG, has the Suns sending Green (plus Dillon Brooks and prospect Khaman Maluach) to Atlanta, with Trae Young and Onyeka Okongwu making the trip to Phoenix. For a team built around Booker’s elite scoring and floor-spacing, the fit is suddenly a lot cleaner, and well, a lot spicier.

The Jalen Green experiment was always a high-variance gamble. He’s not a knockdown shooter, but an explosive creator who thrives with the ball in his hands. The problem? So does Booker. The vision was a dual-creator backcourt, but in practice, it felt like Phoenix was trying to fit two alphas into the same space. Sources insisted the Suns liked Green’s athleticism and viewed him as a piece that could grow alongside Booker. But as Gerald Bourguet pointed out on the Beyond the RK podcast, there were red flags.

Jalen Green’s inefficiency from all three levels, his defensive metrics, and the Rockets’ significantly better defensive rating when he sat. “He is not an elite shot maker from the rim, from the mid-range, from three-point range… Hopefully, we can build Jaylen Green’s value up and potentially move him, or it just works out somehow, and we have this backcourt of the future now. Um, but for me, I’m very skeptical about how it’s going to work out,” Bourguet said.

It didn’t help that whispers around the league suggested the Phoenix Suns had already been testing the market for Green before he even settled in, just in case he needed to be flipped in a bigger deal. That’s the NBA version of keeping your ex’s number in your phone… not exactly a long-term commitment, right? Enter Trae Young, a bona fide shot-maker with a range that pulls defenses into panic mode. While Green can get downhill, Young bends defenses before he even crosses half-court.

That kind of gravitational pull is exactly the type of weapon that frees Devin Booker to hunt his spots without having to initiate every possession. In short, Young makes Booker’s life easier, and that’s worth a lot in a conference where every possession in May and June matters. Okongwu’s arrival shouldn’t be overlooked either. The 23-year-old big man gives Phoenix a versatile defender who can guard in space, switch, and rim-protect, which arguably is a safety net for a Suns roster that’s been top-heavy on offense and patchy on D. If you’re committing to a backcourt that’s going to give up some size, you’d better balance the floor elsewhere.

Booker gets his backcourt balance

Booker’s been the face of the franchise since 2015, the career leader in total points and 3-pointers, and the guy who inked a two-year, $145 million extension to keep him in the Valley through 2030. But in all that time, Phoenix has struggled to consistently pair him with a backcourt partner who truly complements his game. Chris Paul was perfect for a while, steady, unselfish… but age caught up fast. Bradley Beal looked like a dream on paper, but never quite clicked in reality.

Green, at 23 and under contract for three years, $105.3 million, had the youth and athleticism but not the off-ball polish. And in a win-now window with Booker, Kevin Durant, and a shrinking margin for error, Phoenix doesn’t have the luxury of long-term experiments. Trae Young, for all his defensive shortcomings, is an immediate offensive upgrade and a proven playoff performer who can tilt a series. For Booker, this kind of move is about more than numbers.

It’s about rhythm. With Young running point, Booker doesn’t have to be both the engine and the finisher every possession. He can conserve energy for those dagger fourth-quarter stretches where he’s one of the most dangerous players in the league. Of course, the fit isn’t without risk. A Booker-Young backcourt is small, and Western Conference NBA playoff matchups will test them defensively. But if the Suns can surround them with length, switchability, and shooting, the offensive ceiling becomes terrifying. The truth is, this is how contender timelines work.

You identify what’s not clicking, you make a move, and you hope the chemistry builds faster than the doubters can tweet. For the Suns, resolving the Green dilemma might not just be an addition by subtraction… it might be the move that gives Booker the balance he’s been waiting for his entire career.