Is Dillon Brooks Already the Suns' Best Player?

The production gap. Through two preseason losses, Brooks scored 11 points in each game, matching Devin Booker's 13-point opener. Over his last three games with a teammate out, he's logged 39 minutes and averaged 28.7 points a night, a workload no one drew up in July.

What he's paid. Booker signed a two-year, $145 million extension through 2029-30, the richest annual salary of any extension in league history, and earns $57.1 million this season. Green makes $36.3 million, Bridges $22.8 million. Brooks, at $20.0 million, is fourth on the roster he is currently out-producing.

The counterargument. Brooks' surge lines up with absences, not a shift in the pecking order. Booker got a rest listing on October 10, and Bridges has been sidelined since October 8 with a right ankle issue. Jalen Green and Oso Ighodaro also logged bigger minutes in that stretch, the whole bench rose, not just Brooks.

Off-court weight. Brooks also carries a misdemeanor DUI charge reported September 30, still unresolved, while leading the team in scoring in both of this week's losses. Valley of the Suns called his rise a double-edged sword, the exact mix Phoenix has to manage, the hot hand paired with an open legal question.

Where Phoenix sits. Phoenix's preseason sits at 1-2 after losing 107-109 at Detroit, losing 117-124 at Chicago, then beating the Spurs 102-98. The real season is still 0-0; it opens October 21 at Portland. Payroll already runs $216.2 million, past the $200.4 million tax line and the apron limit above it.

The verdict. Brooks is Phoenix's best player right now by pure output, but "right now" carries the weight in that sentence, this is a three-game sample built on other guys' absences. Booker's $57.1 million salary says the hierarchy hasn't changed, and it won't until he and Bridges both return healthy.