Booker Discussion, news and highlights

[Revived]

So.....is Booker injury prone?

Sorta.

In hindsight, this (another) McD move, re-signing Booker for the max instead of waiting till next summer (like Knicks doing with KP) could end up biting us. I imagine if he had continued to have the type of season he's been having thus far then he could have ended up costing much less than he actually did and opened up more cap space to fill the other holes on the roster.

Sure there's a risk that he would get mad if they don't re-sign but at the end of the day, he was going to be an RFA and he would have no say about it if we match his deal. Kinda like Eric Gordon did few years ago when he really wanted to come here to the Suns and publicly expressed his displeasure with NOP and we signed him but NOP still ended up matching his deal and he played out his contract in New Orleans.

[Saberestar]

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[Kerrsed]

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[bwgood77]

If we don’t bring in an all star caliber player by the start of next season I can see him requesting a trade.

I'm not sure I see that. He would've just started year 1 of his 5 year max extension. He has no leverage whatsoever and he knew what he was getting into when he signed that extension. Year 4 and year 5 he would have leverage but not in year 1. If you wanted that max money, you know you're in it for the long haul for better or for worse

He'd just be admitting he failed if he asked out. He wanted Ayton and got him. He just keeps getting injured and won't play D. His efficiency has taken a dive this year too. I know he's playing somewhat injured and defenses key on him but they key on all top scorers.

[bwgood77]

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Not a very astute writer of that article....

Without Booker, the Suns will rely on Isaiah Canaan or Jamal Crawford to play the point guard position.

[WeekapaugGroove]

I'd guess he misses about 6 weeks.

[Saberestar]

I'd guess he misses about 6 weeks.

For what he is saying, I expect him out at most two weeks.

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[bwgood77]

I'd guess he misses about 6 weeks.

For what he is saying, I expect him out at most two weeks.

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He just better be fully healthy.

[bwgood77]

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[TeamTragic]

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Perfect. We need Booker healthy for next season.

[lilfishi22]

So.....is Booker injury prone?

Sorta.

In hindsight, this (another) McD move, re-signing Booker for the max instead of waiting till next summer (like Knicks doing with KP) could end up biting us. I imagine if he had continued to have the type of season he's been having thus far then he could have ended up costing much less than he actually did and opened up more cap space to fill the other holes on the roster.

Sure there's a risk that he would get mad if they don't re-sign but at the end of the day, he was going to be an RFA and he would have no say about it if we match his deal. Kinda like Eric Gordon did few years ago when he really wanted to come here to the Suns and publicly expressed his displeasure with NOP and we signed him but NOP still ended up matching his deal and he played out his contract in New Orleans.

To be fair most fans didn't mind us inking Booker last summer rather than wait. It would've been better had we waited until the following season (I was certainly in favor of it) but I didn't mind that we did it then. For me, given his year on year improvement, it was certainly trending towards a max deal either way. So I don't think there would've been significant cost savings benefits to try and nickle and dime him. You also can't compare Booker's situation to KP's because they are different issue entirely since KP he went down to a pretty serious injury

[Revived]

So.....is Booker injury prone?

Sorta.

In hindsight, this (another) McD move, re-signing Booker for the max instead of waiting till next summer (like Knicks doing with KP) could end up biting us. I imagine if he had continued to have the type of season he's been having thus far then he could have ended up costing much less than he actually did and opened up more cap space to fill the other holes on the roster.

Sure there's a risk that he would get mad if they don't re-sign but at the end of the day, he was going to be an RFA and he would have no say about it if we match his deal. Kinda like Eric Gordon did few years ago when he really wanted to come here to the Suns and publicly expressed his displeasure with NOP and we signed him but NOP still ended up matching his deal and he played out his contract in New Orleans.

To be fair most fans didn't mind us inking Booker last summer rather than wait. It would've been better had we waited until the following season (I was certainly in favor of it) but I didn't mind that we did it then. For me, given his year on year improvement, it was certainly trending towards a max deal either way. So I don't think there would've been significant cost savings benefits to try and nickle and dime him. You also can't compare Booker's situation to KP's because they are different issue entirely since KP he went down to a pretty serious injury

It’s not just KP, it’s Russel as well. The only other player who really got a max extension from that draft was Towns who is super durable (reason why I draft him in fantasy almost every year).

Yeah most, including me, didn’t have a problem with it at the time which is why I said using hindsight.

I just hope it doesn’t end up a mistake to not wait.

[lilfishi22]

Sorta.

In hindsight, this (another) McD move, re-signing Booker for the max instead of waiting till next summer (like Knicks doing with KP) could end up biting us. I imagine if he had continued to have the type of season he's been having thus far then he could have ended up costing much less than he actually did and opened up more cap space to fill the other holes on the roster.

Sure there's a risk that he would get mad if they don't re-sign but at the end of the day, he was going to be an RFA and he would have no say about it if we match his deal. Kinda like Eric Gordon did few years ago when he really wanted to come here to the Suns and publicly expressed his displeasure with NOP and we signed him but NOP still ended up matching his deal and he played out his contract in New Orleans.

To be fair most fans didn't mind us inking Booker last summer rather than wait. It would've been better had we waited until the following season (I was certainly in favor of it) but I didn't mind that we did it then. For me, given his year on year improvement, it was certainly trending towards a max deal either way. So I don't think there would've been significant cost savings benefits to try and nickle and dime him. You also can't compare Booker's situation to KP's because they are different issue entirely since KP he went down to a pretty serious injury

It’s not just KP, it’s Russel as well. The only other player who really got a max extension from that draft was Towns who is super durable (reason why I draft him in fantasy almost every year).

Yeah most, including me, didn’t have a problem with it at the time which is why I said using hindsight.

I just hope it doesn’t end up a mistake to not wait.

DLo didn't show the year on year improvement though and he wasn't particularly healthy himself. Totally understandable. Booker went from 14ppg to 22ppg to 25ppg with a jump to league average efficiency. Quite frankly, the only thing that held Booker back was his defense and potential injury issues. Booker's injury history didn't involve torn ligaments or anything that would likely affect a player long term and while his defense is still poor his offense is near elite enough to be an overall positive player.

Towns certainly warranted a max extension but Booker isn't that far and certainly had more than a few arguments to warrant a max deal. The problem really is that team success hasn't really seen an improvement while Booker's defense hasn't really improved either. But it's a team problem and not just a Booker problem.

[bwgood77]

I just created a poll, and I wonder what people's take on this would be. I used last year Booker since that has been his best year, and obviously he would benefit playing with Nash, but where would he rank? I don't think you can put him above Nash, and Amare was devastingly dominant, Marion a GREAT two way player, so I looked at a JJ in that season comparison to Booker....and here it is..

JJ was the far better shooter from 3 and defender, but Booker got to the line more..looking at it, it's still crazy that we didn't keep JJ after shooting 48% from 3.

http://bkref.com/tiny/XrLvE

[darealjuice]

I just created a poll, and I wonder what people's take on this would be. I used last year Booker since that has been his best year, and obviously he would benefit playing with Nash, but where would he rank? I don't think you can put him above Nash, and Amare was devastingly dominant, Marion a GREAT two way player, so I looked at a JJ in that season comparison to Booker....and here it is..

JJ was the far better shooter from 3 and defender, but Booker got to the line more..looking at it, it's still crazy that we didn't keep JJ after shooting 48% from 3.

http://bkref.com/tiny/XrLvE

Driving away JJ over chump change was the first of many steps in Sarver's destruction of this franchise

[lilfishi22]

Tough question... I read the question as not necessarily a better player from an individual player standpoint but importance to the team.

I would probably say 5th best. With or without Booker, we would still have the #1 offense in the league. But while Booker's offense is great his defense would've been exploited in the playoffs. Even if you consider Booker to be a better offensive player than JJ, you couldn't really go at JJ in the same way you could go at Booker. Our offense was elite but our defense was in the bottom half (#17) of the league and making it worse with Booker would've made us more vulnerable

[Revived]

I'd guess he misses about 6 weeks.

For what he is saying, I expect him out at most two weeks.

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They need to shut him down for remainder of the calendar year at least.

The Suns aren't winning games with him anyway and he's their best player and they've made a huge investment in him so just let him get completely healthy before bringing him back.

[Saberestar]

I'd guess he misses about 6 weeks.

For what he is saying, I expect him out at most two weeks.

Read on Twitter

They need to shut him down for remainder of the calendar year at least.

The Suns aren't winning games with him anyway and he's their best player and they've made a huge investment in him so just let him get completely healthy before bringing him back.

Yeah, I want him healthy on the court too, but if HE wants to play and he thinks that he is ready to go you just need to let him play.

We need to remember that a lot of players were mad about being shut down when they wanted to play... it is really important to not make the same mistake again.

[Saberestar]

I just created a poll, and I wonder what people's take on this would be. I used last year Booker since that has been his best year, and obviously he would benefit playing with Nash, but where would he rank? I don't think you can put him above Nash, and Amare was devastingly dominant, Marion a GREAT two way player, so I looked at a JJ in that season comparison to Booker....and here it is..

JJ was the far better shooter from 3 and defender, but Booker got to the line more..looking at it, it's still crazy that we didn't keep JJ after shooting 48% from 3.

http://bkref.com/tiny/XrLvE

To me Booker would have been the fourth best player on that team, right after STAT and Matrix.

He would have been amazing scoring on the perimeter next to all those guys.

[Saberestar]

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