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Seriously, why does Booker avoid passing to Ayton?

He will gladly pass to Holmes, but seems to avoid giving it to Ayton in a ton of situations where he should be getting the ball. I used to think it was all in my head, but this late in the season it seems to hold some truth.

Am I crazy, or have you guys noticed that Booker won’t pass the ball to Ayton very often?

I notice it !!

Suns need a legit point guard for playmaking ... booker would be ideal in a Klay Thompson catch and shoot role!! If we continue with a ball dominate/point book we won’t make the playoffs for another 10 years

I don't know. There was an obvious one tonight with a mismatch I mentioned, but I think he has tried in the past and he results in turnovers. I think he doesn't have a great touch with it yet for whatever reason. I notice sometimes it seems easier for guys with length to get him the ball, like Bridges will stretch his arm out high or around someone to get him the ball without the defender getting it. With more defensive focus on him it might be tougher than for others, but it should be a big priority. But when Melton sat with 4 fouls and Booker became the primary ball handler it really stopped tonight.

There are not too many teams who throw it down to their big a lot these days, and with him heavily guarded it is tougher...there are so many drives and dishes. I really wish they could run the pick n roll like Nash and Amare did, or even Dragic and Frye. I imagine in time it will get better, and hopefully soon.

Scubetrolis wrote:Seriously, why does Booker avoid passing to Ayton?

He will gladly pass to Holmes, but seems to avoid giving it to Ayton in a ton of situations where he should be getting the ball. I used to think it was all in my head, but this late in the season it seems to hold some truth.

Am I crazy, or have you guys noticed that Booker won’t pass the ball to Ayton very often?

Said the same thing a while back, I think Booker is worried that Ayton will take that #1 spot from him.

Son of Ra wrote:

Scubetrolis wrote:Seriously, why does Booker avoid passing to Ayton?

He will gladly pass to Holmes, but seems to avoid giving it to Ayton in a ton of situations where he should be getting the ball. I used to think it was all in my head, but this late in the season it seems to hold some truth.

Am I crazy, or have you guys noticed that Booker won’t pass the ball to Ayton very often?

Said the same thing a while back, I think Booker is worried that Ayton will take that #1 spot from him.

This is so ridiculous. Booker isn't a PG. People want Booker to turn into Steve Nash or something. It's absurd.

I think part of the reason is bad positioning of Ayton prior to receiving a pass. He is not boxing out his defender and usually doesn't extend his arm or show in any way where does he want the ball. Currently usually his defenders are able to put their hands in the way of the ball and hence the high turnover rate. There is more to be desired from guys' passing skills as well. It will all come with practise and routine.

sunstrooper wrote:I think part of the reason is bad positioning of Ayton prior to receiving a pass. He is not boxing out his defender and usually doesn't extend his arm or show in any way where does he want the ball. Currently usually his defenders are able to put their hands in the way of the ball and hence the high turnover rate. There is more to be desired from guys' passing skills as well. It will all come with practise and routine.

And additional strength. Deandre Ayton is a young man. Don't forget that.

Booker is the best and most versatile scorer on our team. But his instinct is to score. He doesn't need the ball in his hands all the time to be great.

We will see some changes in roster construction this summer, I'm sure. That, plus internal development, I think could carry us to 50+ wins next season.

Pretty much only KD could carry us to 50 wins next year.

Draft the BPA, find a damn PG that isn’t a rookie or g-leaguer, and we’ll hit .500 next year which would be a massive improvement.

Also Ayton is usually better covered than Holmes as he is a bigger offensive threat.

It's more likely it's due to lack of opportunity than lack of will by Booker

Jarlaxle0204 wrote:

Son of Ra wrote:

Scubetrolis wrote:Seriously, why does Booker avoid passing to Ayton?

He will gladly pass to Holmes, but seems to avoid giving it to Ayton in a ton of situations where he should be getting the ball. I used to think it was all in my head, but this late in the season it seems to hold some truth.

Am I crazy, or have you guys noticed that Booker won’t pass the ball to Ayton very often?

Said the same thing a while back, I think Booker is worried that Ayton will take that #1 spot from him.

This is so ridiculous. Booker isn't a PG. People want Booker to turn into Steve Nash or something. It's absurd.

I obviously know and agree that he's no Nash or even PG. And yes Ayton needs to work on his positioning as well, he often calls for the ball when he's in no position to do so and rightfully gets ignores by everyone on the team. But Booker point blank ignores him or waves him off/demands a block instead many times when he actually is in a great position.

Scubetrolis wrote:Seriously, why does Booker avoid passing to Ayton?

He will gladly pass to Holmes, but seems to avoid giving it to Ayton in a ton of situations where he should be getting the ball. I used to think it was all in my head, but this late in the season it seems to hold some truth.

Am I crazy, or have you guys noticed that Booker won’t pass the ball to Ayton very often?

Please post a video clip or two

I think people tend to forget that there are often two mismatches on a pick-n-roll switch. Ayton will often have a smaller/mid-sized player on him while Booker has the taller/larger/slower player. Both of them have an advantage and I have seen enough times where Steve Nash, Steph Curry, or another elite shooter just murders the big guy out on the perimeter. Hell it happened to Bender all the time.

Anyways I think if people could extract clips from the game that showed the entire offensive possession where Ayton was "frozen" out it would make the claim more believable or at least the entire possession could be examined and evaluated. Stuff is happening off the ball that is not taken into account such as defenders cheating towards Ayton and leaving a three point shooter open.

Regardless of whether this is true or not I hope that Ayton snatches the #1 spot from Booker the same way KAT did to Wiggins during his sophomore year.

The Kobe/Shaq thing was a little ridiculous.

It's not unattainable, but let's stop declaring the absolute ceilings of who you are as a player. Get there, each day, each game.

But I want Booker looking at 2007-2009 Kobe, because he actually did a great job of balancing scoring and distributing. Booker has a lot to learn, but it's mostly consistency, I think, and taking what the defense/refs are giving him.

The kid can flat out score with the best of them, but we need him to be the engine of this team and get the other guys/the #1 David Robinson look-a-like going. Using himself as a decoy, as a PnR Harden-lite distributor (which I think he's improved a lot this year doing) and then look to get yours in the 4th.

Booker is a stereotypical me-first player and doesn't want to share his pedestal with a player who is eventually going to surpass him as the face of the franchise

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Midnight_Suns wrote:Booker is a stereotypical me-first player and doesn't want to share his pedestal with a player who is eventually going to surpass him as the face of the franchise

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Weird take.

Booker is forced to play a position he's not comfortable with and it shows. Sure,he puts up decent assist numbers, but he's not actively making anyone better or the team better because he has no actual idea how to play PG. Ayton has no idea how to play using his body because he's never really had to, he's always been bigger/stronger/faster, that just doesnt fly in the NBA unless you're a generational one off like Shaq. They just arent meshing well yet, a good NBA PG makes both of their lives easier, so I'd reserve judgment until we see both of them with that sort of help.