Impact of Devin Booker injury on Suns' NBA title aspirations

Back in November, Booker suffered a strained hamstring and was forced to miss seven games. During last year’s NBA Finals against the Milwaukee Bucks, Booker also suffered a hamstring injury. While he played through the pain, it impacted the star’s overall performance. That’s especially true when it comes to his long-range game.

An injury of this ilk would normally keep a player out for two weeks. With Phoenix now mired in a first-round battle against New Orleans, there will be a rush to bring Booker back. That could potentially lead to further issues moving forward given his injury history.

Since the start of the 2020-21 season, Phoenix boasts an 11-8 record when Booker doesn’t play. While not too bad, the team is much more exposed than when Booker plays during this span (.770 winning percentage).

With Booker sidelined for at least the next two games, recently-acquired point guard Aaron Holiday will likely find himself in the rotation. He did not play in the first two games of the playoff series. We also fully expect Landry Shamet to take on larger role. The veteran two-guard shot 39% from the field during the regular season and connected on 2-of-3 shots in Game 2 after sitting out the series opener against New Orleans.

Phoenix will also be reliant on Cameron Payne and Cameron Johnson to pick up the scoring slack. It’s not an ideal scenario.

In the short term, it now looks like Phoenix will be mired in a longer-than-expected first-round series against a Pelicans squad that went 36-46 during the regular season.

New Orleans started the season out 3-16 before posting a 33-30 record to conclude the 2021-22 regular season. The team was 11-8 in its final 19 home games, including a 131-115 loss to Phoenix back on March 15.

Riding the hot hand of star forward Brandon Ingram, who missed that aforementioned game to injury, New Orleans will not be an easy out these next two games starting Friday evening. Ingram, 24, is averaging 27.5 points, 8.0 rebounds and 6.5 assists on 80% shooting from distance over the first two games of the series.

Looking at the Western Conference Playoffs as a whole, three of the four first-round series are tied at one. The only exception here being the Golden State Warriors, who dominated the Denver Nuggets in the first two games of their series in San Francisco.

While we fully expect Phoenix to avoid what would be the biggest upset in NBA Playoff history, a longer series could have an impact on the team moving forward. That’s especially true with a potential second-round opponent in the Dallas Mavericks set to return Luka Doncic from injury soon.