The 2024-25 season has been a strange one for Devin Booker so far. On the one hand, he has stayed healthy and played some great games that helped his team win, while at the same time he has returned to the more familiar role of off guard that has brought him so much joy in the past.

With both Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal missing time in the first quarter of the season and Booker earning an award despite his frequent appearances, parts of the fan base have looked for someone to blame for the team’s woes. Some have pointed to Booker, even though the Suns averaged just under 25 points and 6.4 assists on a nightly basis.

Now head coach Mike Budenholzer is coming under fire.

It’s somewhat surprising that it took so long for coach Budenholzer’s name to be mentioned as a reason for the Suns’ struggles this season. It’s probably unfair, too, since this group looked like legitimate contenders when fully healthy. It’s not his fault that Durant is 36 years old or that Beal is an injury-prone star.

It would also be highly expected that the organization would cut him after this season – but it won’t – given he had a difficult one-year experience with Frank Vogel last time out. You need some continuity to win championships, and the prospect of a third-year coach in as many years — assuming Budenholzer hasn’t done much wrong — isn’t a promising sign.

But where coach Budenholzer may deserve some criticism is his love of shooting three-pointers. Or more specifically, his preference for certain players who take so many shots from deep. The league has obviously evolved massively in this direction, and this squad has had to put up with more every night to stay competitive. But why does that have to include Devin Booker?

Anonymous NBA executive on Devin Booker’s recent troubles:

“Mike Budenholzer ruined Devin Booker. What made him a premier shooting guard in the league was his style of play and his ability to line up with his mid-range shots. Lately he’s been shooting more 3-pointers than he… pic.twitter.com/1mU9sYjNjn

— Ahmed/The Ears/IG: BigBizTheGod 🇸🇴 (@big_business_) December 11, 2024

Could the above from an “anonymous source” be completely made up? Sure, but that’s not the point here. There’s no denying that Booker is averaging a career-high 7.7 attempts from deep so far this season, and he’s only hit 33.5 percent of them. That’s the second-worst mark of his career, and there’s no doubt it’s affecting his elite offensive play.

Booker is at his best when he’s in the flow of the game and can take whatever defenders give him. In addition, he is also able to influence his opponents through his willingness to shoot, and this usually involves some hard shots from mid-range and difficult adventures to the basket. Once those are complete, he begins scattering 3-pointers, the final step in breaking the will of defenders.

But so far this season – and with Durant often away from him – Booker is settling for those longer attempts much earlier in the game, and it may be Coach Budenholzer who instructed him to do so. Consider what he also tried to do to center Jusuf Nurkic, and that’s a discount version of the Milwaukee Bucks’ Brook Lopez.

It’s great to try to expand the reach of a hard-working center to breathe new life into his career and offensive sets. But at just 29 percent on just under three attempts per game, it’s fair to say this experiment didn’t come to life. If the Suns had time and Nurkic was a younger player, perhaps this would be a venture worth pursuing.

Instead, it feels like coach Bud Nurkic is forcing these shots because we all know he’ll be very open even sharing the court with Booker and Beal. If the memo says that’s what your center is supposed to do, then surely that’s what’s being asked of Booker to expect a top-15 player in the league who is an offensive juggernaut when he gets going.

Isn’t it best to leave the distance shooting to Grayson Allen – who led the league in that category last season – and sixth man Royce O’Neale? Even point guard Tyus Jones is completing an impressive 41.3 percent of his attempts, another career high at 5.5 shots per night.

The Suns rank an impressive eighth in 3-point shooting (37.8 percent), making around eight more shots from that range compared to last season. That shows growth, but allowing Booker to score in his own way again – and to do so while at least being the alpha scorer in Durant’s absence – could create a happy medium and allow coach Budenholzer to To avoid criticism from “anonymous sources”.