PHOENIX — Not long after Steve Nash circulated the facility, talking to Phoenix Suns players and coaches, Devin Booker was asked about the significance of having the Hall of Fame point guard in training camp.
“It only makes sense, man,” Booker said. “Him being around, for all of us, just knowing that he’s in the gym, it’s going to raise the level of everything.”
A two-time Most Valuable Player and the engine of the “:07 Seconds or Less” Suns, Nash has rejoined the organization as a senior advisor. While Nash will likely spend more time with the front office and coaching staff, it might be Booker who benefits most from his presence and intelligence. Nash, after all, is not the only person here with a new role.
Booker, who turns 29 this month, is about to enter his 11th season. For the first time, he will be the team’s undisputed leader. During Phoenix’s run to the 2021 NBA Finals, Chris Paul was the lead voice. For the past two seasons, in which the Suns failed to win a playoff game with a core of Booker, Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal, the team lacked strong locker room direction.
A four-time All-Star guard, Booker understands this is his role. Although he’s not the oldest player on the roster, he has the most experience. He’s also the face of the franchise. In July, Booker signed a two-year, $145 million max contract extension that’s designed to keep him in place through the 2029-30 season.
“I have unfinished business here,” Booker said, referring to the organization’s championship drive, which has sputtered. “I know how much it would mean to this city and this organization. That’s my job as a leader. It’s my responsibility (as) a franchise player.”
Booker has never shied from speaking up, but leadership requires more. This is in motion. Before training camp, Booker invited the entire roster to Flagstaff, where he spends most of his offseasons, an escape from the desert heat. There, the Suns scrimmaged at Northern Arizona University (with Booker’s dog hanging nearby), golfed at Pine Canyon and bonded amid the cooler temperatures.
“It was different,” rookie center Khaman Maluach said. “My first time in Flagstaff.”
“Kind of like a mini-camp,” rookie guard Koby Brea said.
Booker’s motivation was simple.
“We had a new team, (so) just get everybody together and out of some of their comfort zones, being outside together and on the golf course, and we definitely got some time in the gym,” he said. “We didn’t want training camp or the week before training camp to be the first time everybody’s meeting each other because I know how valuable those off-court relationships directly affect being on the court together.”
Booker emphasized this during last week’s media day at PHX Arena. During a radio interview with the team’s flagship station, he said the last two seasons with Durant and Beal were the hardest of his career, more so than the first four, when the Suns failed to win more than 24 games. The Suns got along fine, Booker said of the uninspired last two years, but “when you’re all on a different plan, and when you don’t have the same common goal,” the results aren’t good.
Change this season starts with him.
At the end of Monday’s practice, Nash stood in a corner of the Suns’ practice facility, talking with former Suns guard Rex Chapman, who works in the organization’s front office. The previous week, University of Alabama coach Nate Oats and former New York Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau watched from there as well.
The news of Nash’s hire excited not only Phoenix’s fans but also its roster. Guard Collin Gillespie said the first text message he received after majority owner Mat Ishbia announced the move was from his mother. She instructed Gillespie to absorb as much as possible. And “don’t be afraid to ask questions,” she said.
Like Booker, Nash, 51, is among the most popular players in franchise history. The Suns initially drafted the point guard with the 15th pick of the 1996 NBA Draft, but two years later traded him to the Dallas Mavericks. Nash spent six years in Dallas, blossoming into an All-Star before signing with the Suns as a free agent in 2004. In his first three seasons in Mike D’Antoni’s free-styling system, Nash won two MVP awards and finished just behind buddy Dirk Nowitzki in his quest for a third.
Two-Time in the building for today’s practice! Also look who he’s reppin’ 👀
📍 @Verizon 5G Performance Center pic.twitter.com/3WWtoQIaNA
— Phoenix Suns (@Suns) September 27, 2025
In a summer appearance on “The Tom Tolbert Show,” Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr — who worked as Suns general manager during Nash’s time in Phoenix — said he’d watch Nash throw a perfect pass in practice that a teammate would fumble out of bounds. Nash, Kerr said, would pat his chest and say, “My fault, my fault.”
“It was so powerful,” Kerr told Tolbert. “It was just, you know, you’re watching, you’re like, ‘Come on, man, that was a perfect pass.’ But how great is that? To just take the pressure off of someone else, just say, ‘Hey, I got this. My fault.’ That’s how leadership, I think, looks. And I saw it with Steve Nash.”
Booker does not need to distribute like Nash — his scoring is too important — but if the Suns are to engineer a season that serves as a springboard, he’ll need to elevate teammates like the Phoenix legend once did. To give them confidence.
After talking with Chapman, Nash stopped and embraced fellow Canadian Dillon Brooks, who was shooting 3s at a nearby basket. During his prime, Nash would have drawn a defender like Brooks, someone who lives to get inside an opponent’s skin. “He’s going to be a great tool for us to use,” Brooks had said of Nash a few days earlier. From there, Nash chatted with development coach Mateen Cleaves before linking up with general manager Brian Gregory.
Although it’s unclear how much Nash will be around, Gregory noted at media day that Nash had been in the gym often. During one conversation, Nash, who was head coach of the Brooklyn Nets from 2020 to 2022, referred to the Suns as “we,” which made Gregory pause. “Damn,” he thought. This is how it should be.
“Everything that we talk about, that we wanted our players to embody and our identity, that’s Steve Nash,” Gregory said. “He’s going to make a huge impact.”
Steve Nash greets Devin Booker at a 2023 game. “He’s going to make a huge impact,” new Phoenix GM Brian Gregory says of Nash, a senior advisor for the team. (Barry Gossage / NBAE via Getty Images)
Last summer, Booker met with Jordan Ott before the former Cleveland Cavaliers assistant interviewed for the Phoenix head coaching job. They watched film for about 20 minutes, and Booker was impressed with Ott’s recognition of how the game has changed. To understand that what worked two years ago may not work as effectively today.
Once he landed the job, Ott felt fortunate. Even with Phoenix overhauling its roster — only seven players return from last season’s 36-win outfit — he had an elite talent to build around, one who had starred in the league and played a key role in the Olympics.
“I’ve been around different teams,” said Ott, who in addition to Cleveland has worked with the Atlanta Hawks, Brooklyn Nets and Los Angeles Lakers. “To have your superstar in the state, in the city, in the gym is a major luxury for us. We talk about how the gym has felt with guys being in there to work, it starts at the top.”
The Suns’ career scoring leader, Booker has totaled 16,452 points, 18th among active players. Although his efficiency dropped last season, he is such an elite scorer that his playmaking often gets overlooked. With Durant in Phoenix the past three seasons, Booker increased his assists average from 5.5 to 6.9 to 7.1. Brooks, a past adversary, recently called his new teammate an offensive wizard.
Devin Booker, Jalen Green and Dillon Brooks form the new core in Phoenix, with Booker in a new role as the Suns’ undisputed leader after the departure of Kevin Durant. (Mark J. Rebilas / Imagn Images)
This season, Booker will share the backcourt with Jalen Green, an athletic, downhill scorer the Suns acquired (along with Brooks and the draft rights to Maluach) in the Durant trade with the Houston Rockets. Brooks should start at small forward, with second-year energizer Ryan Dunn and lob threat Mark Williams, obtained in a trade with the Charlotte Hornets, possibly completing the frontcourt.
Booker says he and Green, a 23-year-old who averaged 20.1 points in four seasons in Houston, still are learning how to play off each other. He said he thinks playing at a faster pace should help. His message to Green: Stay aggressive.
“From Day 1, he’s been great,” Ott said of Booker’s leadership. “He’s not just talking the talk, he’s talking when he has points that he really wants to emphasize. That’s who he is. He’s a thoughtful, high-character person that, when he speaks, everyone listens for a reason — because he’s very on point with what he says.”
Phoenix might be lucky to reach .500. Booker said he hasn’t paid attention to such talk and chooses to keep team goals to himself. He knows the Suns are young. He knows they’ll make mistakes. His job is to navigate them through the rough patches.
“I understand how much my voice amongst the younger team that we have now matters, so it’s my job to handle that,” Booker said.
And if he needs help, a Hall of Fame point guard will be around to offer assistance.
(Top photo: Barry Gossage / NBAE via Getty Images)