Devin Booker says relationship with Mike Budenholzer is great: ‘When things start going bad, everybody tries to point fingers’

NBA insider Chris Haynes shared a bombshell report regarding Phoenix Suns head coach Mike Budenholzer and star guard Devin Booker recently.

According to Haynes, Budenholzer called a meeting with Booker several weeks back in which he told the former University of Kentucky standout to be less vocal on the court. Booker allegedly responded to such advice from his head coach with shock.

However, Booker seemingly cleared the air regarding his relationship with Budenholzer with some comments he made on Sunday. Booker asserted that he and Budenholzer have a “great” relationship.

“Nah, Coach said it, too,” Booker began when asked about the report from Haynes. “We’ve had multiple conversations, and I can’t seem to find one that sticks out more than the others. It’s a player-coach relationship. When things start going bad, everybody tries to point fingers to find out what’s wrong. People are going to come up with stuff. The relationship’s great. We’re on the same page. We’re trying to win, and that’s that.”

The Suns are in jeopardy of another failed season with the star trio of Booker, forward Kevin Durant and guard Bradley Beal in the fold. Phoenix has played 60 of its 82 games in the 2024-25 regular season and has just 28 wins so far. Additionally, not only are the Suns not a top-eight seed in the West, they wouldn’t even qualify for the play-in tournament with their current place in the standings as the No. 11 seed.

Phoenix hasn’t done itself any favors with its quality of play lately. The Suns are losers of three of their last four games and have fallen short against lowly teams such as the New Orleans Pelicans and Toronto Raptors in that time.

Unfortunately, the Suns aren’t exactly slated to have an easy schedule over the last 20-plus games of their season, either. According to Tankathon, the Suns have the hardest schedule left of any team in the NBA in terms of opponent winning percentage.

Before the campaign ends, Phoenix will take on the defending champion Boston Celtics twice and play all of the Cleveland Cavaliers, Oklahoma City Thunder, New York Knicks, Denver Nuggets and Los Angeles Lakers once.

Booker, Budenholzer and the Suns will attempt to avoid picking up their fourth loss in a five-game span when they play the Minnesota Timberwolves on Sunday.

The Timberwolves are fresh off an ugly loss to the Utah Jazz on Feb. 28. Utah holds the worst record of any team in the Western Conference at 15-44 on the campaign and has just eight home wins all season.