Devin Booker

GMATCallahan · Post #561 » by **GMATCallahan** » Thu May 12, 2016 6:33 am

Mjeezy2006 wrote:Devin Booker is starting next season ! He is hands down our best player and will only continue to improve over the summer. At only 19 years old he will get stronger, faster, and more agile. We have to set a precedence with the team for years to come, and using "our best player" (Devin Booker) as a six man is unacceptable. What was the stat again ??? Booker was the only teenager to have the most 30 point games in a season besides LBJ and Durant?? That is elite company and you treat the elite by making them the face of your franchise! Not a sixth man. Bledsoe cant stay healthy and neither can Knight. Booker is the face of the suns, period.

I would say that a healthy Bledsoe is still the Suns' best total player.

... don't know about Booker becoming "faster" and "more agile," either. He should become stronger, although that bar is a low one.

GMATCallahan · Post #562 » by **GMATCallahan** » Thu May 12, 2016 6:36 am

Blackification wrote:
Mulhollanddrive wrote:What went wrong with his 3pt shot after the All-Star break.

Defenders stuck to him like glue, whats awesome is that still averaged around 20 ppg shooting way below what his 3pt percentage will be.

... not sure that it was all the defense. Booker's legs probably got a little fatigued in the second half. After all, here is a nineteen-year old who played one year of college basketball, on the deepest team in college basketball, and now he is asked to play a six-month NBA schedule.

Booker is still learning to refine his shot selection, too.

GMATCallahan · Post #563 » by **GMATCallahan** » Thu May 12, 2016 6:39 am

Qwigglez wrote:Is it too early to start predictions on what Booker is gonna do next season?
Here's my early prediction...
With Bledsoe and Warren coming back, the defenses can't hone in on Booker so much. I expect Booker to get roughly the same amount of volume shots in he just won't hold the ball so much. I think we should still see something around 17 shots per game, and I'd like for Booker to shoot at least 6 threes a game. It may sound like a lot but it really isn't. Mirza takes 6 threes off the bench, Klay Thompson shoots 8 threes a game, Curry shot a ridiculous 11 threes a game. The 3-ball is becoming one of the most valuable skills a player can have, and I honestly feel like Booker should be taking even more. Back on topic, I think Booker will probably get to the line a couple of times so my safe bet is saying he'll shoot 4-5 free throws a game. I'll put it on average of 4.3 per game. I expect Booker to hit his shots at a better rate because of a better supporting cast too.
So I'll predict maybe 7.9/17.5, shooting 2.3/6 3's, and 3.5/4.3 free throws. So that is about 21.6 points per game.

Am I shooting too high?

... if Knight is still around, yes. Even without Knight, I am not sure about 21.6 points per game next season, but you never know.

The three is valuable if you actually shoot it well, like Curry, Thompson, and Teletovic. If you do not shoot it well, it is about as bad as anything else, especially if you possess other skills at your disposal that you could potentially be employing instead. Read: Brandon Knight ...

Post #564 » by **lilfishi22** » Thu May 12, 2016 6:56 am

Even healthy Bledsoe barely managed 20ppg playing with Knight and virtually no competition off the bench. If all three guards are healthy and playing, I find it very hard to see Booker average more than 16ppg off the bench. Booker will get consistent minutes but with a healthy Bledsoe and Knight in the line up, there just isn't enough minutes to give to Booker for him to average 20ppg.

GMATCallahan · Post #565 » by **GMATCallahan** » Thu May 12, 2016 7:03 am

letsgosuns wrote:Here is a comparison I am much more interested in. Booker versus Kobe's second year. I chose Kobe's second year so I can compare them both at age 19. Their statistics are eerily similar and almost identical in several per game categories. http://www.basketball-reference.com/play-index/pcm_finder.cgi?request=1&sum=0&y1=1998&p1=bryanko01&y2=2016&p2=bookede01&p3=&p4=&p5=&p6=#per_game::none

You know the biggest difference? Kobe put up those numbers surrounded by players like Shaq, Van Exel, Eddie Jones, Horry, Fisher, Rick Fox, etc. Booker is surrounded by such incredible juggernauts such as Price, Leuer, Len, Knight, Morris for a while, etc. So guess what. Booker is constantly double teamed and is the first guy on the opponent's scouting report yet he still excelled and is having a rookie season on par with future NBA hall of famers. Imagine if Booker played alongside those players that Kobe had at 19. And before anyone says Booker would not get the same shot attempts per game if he had Shaq (which is obvious), you can check the stats and see that on the season Kobe's FGA per game was actually higher than Booker's this year leading into tonight's game.

I highly doubt Kobe was the first guy on the opponent's scouting when he was 19. Not a chance. It was Shaq. You pair Booker with a hall of fame center and see what happens. Wow that sounds exciting. I hope it happens one day.

... yes, but on the other hand, Bryant was playing for a 61-win team that reached the Western Conference Finals, and as you indicated, he was playing for one of the NBA's deeper teams as well. For the most part, he needed to earn those minutes and those opportunities (even if there was some hype and entitlement involved as well).

Putting up numbers can be easier when you play for a 23-win team and in a back-court decimated by injuries. Yes, you may receive greater defensive attention, but opponents were not swarming Booker as if he was Michael Jordan, either, and the opportunities are more plentiful.

What one also sees from the numbers that you linked to is that Bryant got to the free throw line a ton—5.8 attempts per contest in just 26.0 minutes—and made more of a defensive impact than Booker.

On the other hand, as you know, Bryant was in his second season at the age of nineteen, whereas Booker was a rookie.

Still, to suggest that Booker is going to be an all-time great shooting guard, like Bryant, is getting ahead of ourselves, I would say. Booker may well become an All-Star shooting guard, but historically speaking, there are lots of All-Star shooting guards and very few Hall of Fame centers.

aIvin adams · Post #566 » by **aIvin adams** » Fri May 13, 2016 9:36 pm

PER

FTr

AST%

WS/48

VORP

11.9

.295

15.8

.043

-0.6

11.7

.178

20.8

.029

0.0

two rookie seasons. pretty similar.

the first is the rookie year stat line of

Spoiler:

the second is the rookie year stat line of

Spoiler:

in terms of these adv stats, the most important difference IMO is the FTr. it's so important to being efficient on the ball and the players who get real good at it usually had a knack for it from the get-go

thamadkant · Post #567 » by **thamadkant** » Sun May 15, 2016 7:47 am

Booker was playing 38+ minutes though and was given the green light to shoot as much as possible and his Usage rate was very high during that time... 19 year old or not, YES, very impressive... but the team was pretty much set-up to help Booker produce numbers. A crash course in producing numbers.

saintEscaton · Post #568 » by **saintEscaton** » Mon May 16, 2016 3:46 am

1UPZ wrote:Booker was playing 38+ minutes though and was given the green light to shoot as much as possible and his Usage rate was very high during that time... 19 year old or not, YES, very impressive... but the team was pretty much set-up to help Booker produce numbers. A crash course in producing numbers.

Hence why they should be taken with a grain of salt, of course he has the poise of a veteran beyond his years and picked his spots to his strengths before being asked to shoulder all of the load. That alone distinguishes him from MCW who chucked his way into becoming the worst ROTY ever

Jdiddy701 · Post #569 » by **Jdiddy701** » Mon May 16, 2016 4:05 pm

Booker was 4th in rookie of the year. I think he should have been 2nd if he played consistent minutes through the whole season. I would take him before KP and that dude from Denver (my iPhone definitely won't let me spell his name).

Sent from my iPhone using RealGM Forums

Post #570 » by **bwgood77** » Mon May 16, 2016 4:36 pm

[tweet]https://twitter.com/DevinBook/status/732240060490321920[/tweet]

saintEscaton · Post #571 » by **saintEscaton** » Mon May 16, 2016 4:36 pm

As long term prospect he's not a clear cut above the rest of the pack IMO. Turner KP and Jokic are rim protectoring perimeter oriented bigs who are just intriguing if not more due to rarity

Post #572 » by **bwgood77** » Mon May 16, 2016 4:52 pm

saintEscaton wrote:As long term prospect he's not a clear cut above the rest of the pack IMO. Turner KP and Jokic are rim protectoring perimeter oriented bigs who are just intriguing if not more due to rarity

Who, Towns? He's pretty much a stud. I like those guys, but Towns' rookie numbers rank of there with some of the greats.

jcsunsfan · Post #573 » by **jcsunsfan** » Mon May 16, 2016 5:47 pm

So, Booker finishes 4th in rookie of the year voting behind KAT, Porzingis and Jokic--which means he actually finishes 3rd in this draft class. Good job McD. It's great to get good draft positions, its even more important to make good picks.

saintEscaton · Post #574 » by **saintEscaton** » Mon May 16, 2016 6:54 pm

bwgood77 wrote:
saintEscaton wrote:As long term prospect he's not a clear cut above the rest of the pack IMO. Turner KP and Jokic are rim protectoring perimeter oriented bigs who are just intriguing if not more due to rarity

Who, Towns? He's pretty much a stud. I like those guys, but Towns' rookie numbers rank of there with some of the greats.

I was talking bout Booker who I think will be the best guard in this clas hands down . KAT is of course in a league of his own and the only rookie who could have been an impact starter on a competitive team . Turner posted an astornomical block rate in the playoffs and is already the second best player on the Pacers so he has a case to be made as well .

Post #575 » by **bwgood77** » Mon May 16, 2016 6:58 pm

saintEscaton wrote:
bwgood77 wrote:
saintEscaton wrote:As long term prospect he's not a clear cut above the rest of the pack IMO. Turner KP and Jokic are rim protectoring perimeter oriented bigs who are just intriguing if not more due to rarity

Who, Towns? He's pretty much a stud. I like those guys, but Towns' rookie numbers rank of there with some of the greats.

Booker. KAT is of course in a league of his own and the only rookie who could have been an impact starter on a competitive team . Turner posted an astornomical block rate in the playoffs and is already the second best player on the Pacers sho he has a case to be made as well

Oh sure. There's a reason Booker was 4th. We couldn't have taken any of those guys in last year's draft anyways. Sure we could have taken Jokic the previous year instead of Ennis or Bogdan, but McD loves his guards. Not sure he was on too many radars either.

But even if we just end up with the 4th best player out of last year's draft, that's pretty good at 13.

GMATCallahan · Post #576 » by **GMATCallahan** » Mon May 16, 2016 7:51 pm

bwgood77 wrote:Oh sure. There's a reason Booker was 4th. We couldn't have taken any of those guys in last year's draft anyways. Sure we could have taken Jokic the previous year instead of Ennis or Bogdan, but McD loves his guards. Not sure he was on too many radars either.

But even if we just end up with the 4th best player out of last year's draft, that's pretty good at 13.

... kind of like when the Suns drafted Michael Finley with the twenty-first pick in 1995, and Finley turned out to be no worse than the third-best player in that draft, behind Kevin Garnett and Rasheed Wallace (and even Wallace is somewhat debatable).

http://www.basketball-reference.com/draft/NBA_1995.html

That is a more extreme case (the twenty-first pick producing the third-best player, especially since that draft proved fairly talented), but you also see the value of Finley having spent four years in college: he was ready to contribute on a major level right away—on a playoff team. As a rookie for Phoenix, he averaged 15.0 points, 4.6 rebounds, and 3.5 assists, posting a 2.17:1.00 assists-to-turnover ratio, a .511 two-point field goal percentage, and a .551 True Shooting Percentage while serving as the Suns' most versatile perimeter defender.

Then you have 1996, when the Suns drafted Steve Nash fifteenth and he arguably proved to be the second or third-best player in that draft behind Kobe Bryant (some people might say Allen Iverson as well).

http://www.basketball-reference.com/draft/NBA_1996.html

I did not really understand the Ennis pick as soon as I saw him play in the Summer League in July 2014. If you are that undersized, you really need to compensate with speed, and he lacked that element. If the Suns wanted to ensure themselves of a third point guard, why not just re-sign Ish Smith, who I feel that Phoenix undervalued (even at the time, I saw no reason not to bring him back)? Then again, forty players went before Nikola Jokic.

On the other hand, Rodney Hood, who went five picks after Ennis, would have been much better.

jcsunsfan · Post #577 » by **jcsunsfan** » Mon May 16, 2016 8:03 pm

GMATCallahan wrote:
bwgood77 wrote:Oh sure. There's a reason Booker was 4th. We couldn't have taken any of those guys in last year's draft anyways. Sure we could have taken Jokic the previous year instead of Ennis or Bogdan, but McD loves his guards. Not sure he was on too many radars either.

But even if we just end up with the 4th best player out of last year's draft, that's pretty good at 13.

... kind of like when the Suns drafted Michael Finley with the twenty-first pick in 1995, and Finley turned out to be no worse than the third-best player in that draft, behind Kevin Garnett and Rasheed Wallace (and even Wallace is somewhat debatable).

http://www.basketball-reference.com/draft/NBA_1995.html

That is a more extreme case (the twenty-first pick producing the third-best player, especially since that draft proved fairly talented), but you also see the value of Finley having spent four years in college: he was ready to contribute on a major level right away—on a playoff team. As a rookie for Phoenix, he averaged 15.0 points, 4.6 rebounds, and 3.5 assists, posting a 2.17:1.00 assists-to-turnover ratio, a .511 two-point field goal percentage, and a .551 True Shooting Percentage while serving as the Suns' most versatile perimeter defender.

Then you have 1996, when the Suns drafted Steve Nash fifteenth and he arguably proved to be the second or third-best player in that draft behind Kobe Bryant (some people might say Allen Iverson as well).

http://www.basketball-reference.com/draft/NBA_1996.html

I did not really understand the Ennis pick as soon as I saw him play in the Summer League in July 2014. If you are that undersized, you really need to compensate with speed, and he lacked that element. If the Suns wanted to ensure themselves of a third point guard, why not just re-sign Ish Smith, who I feel that Phoenix undervalued (even at the time, I saw no reason not to bring him back)? Then again, forty players went before Nikola Jokic.

On the other hand, Rodney Hood, who went five picks after Ennis, would have been much better.

Finley would have been a much higher pick had he come out a year earlier. His numbers took a dive in his senior year because defenses focused on him almost exclusively. You can sometimes find a bargain player in a senior if you know how to look behind the numbers.

GMATCallahan · Post #578 » by **GMATCallahan** » Mon May 16, 2016 8:28 pm

jcsunsfan wrote:Finley would have been a much higher pick had he come out a year earlier. His numbers took a dive in his senior year because defenses focused on him almost exclusively. You can sometimes find a bargain player in a senior if you know how to look behind the numbers.

... yup. Statistics can be misleading at levels below the highest league ... kind of like using high school GPAs and SAT scores to measure intellectual potential.

GMATCallahan · Post #579 » by **GMATCallahan** » Mon May 16, 2016 8:39 pm

By the way, the Suns only had the twenty-first pick in 1995 because they had traded Cedric Ceballos to the Lakers prior to the '94-'95 season for Los Angeles' first round choice in 1995. The trade seemed dubious at the time and appeared even more costly after free agent signee Danny Manning tore his ACL in February 1995, meaning that Phoenix would need to try and win the championship without both Ceballos and Manning.

Finley provided some belated compensation, though.

thamadkant · Post #580 » by **thamadkant** » Mon May 16, 2016 8:57 pm

saintEscaton wrote:As long term prospect he's not a clear cut above the rest of the pack IMO. Turner KP and Jokic are rim protectoring perimeter oriented bigs who are just intriguing if not more due to rarity

Jokic and Porzingis are typical modern stretch big men.... Very valuable.

Jokic is under rated

When will Booker hit 8,000 career points?