Game 13: Phoenix Suns (9-3) @ Oklahoma City Thunder (10-2) l Friday l 6:00pm l AZFamily

[Revived]

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This is…not a very good answer at all by a “superstar” player earning $50 million/yr to be said superstar.

[sunsbg]

Wolves just overcame 60pt game from Fox. They are at full strength. It can get ugly on Sunday if Beal and Allen are still out and Book is not feeling it again.

[sunsbum]

What's up with Book? He didn't shoot the ball well....or really did anything well but as our only scorer out there, why did he only takes 10 shot attempts?

Something is wrong with him

Constantly double or triple teamed and no one bailed him out and he also turned the ball over a ton.

This is what happens when your only offensive strategy is to shoot threes with no inside game because the entire team is undersized and unable to score near the rim.

Booker playing like sht and surrounded by 3rd stringers. Imagine trying to get space on offense with josh okogie/ryan dunn /igidaro/nurk next to you.

[Frank Lee]

The writing is being written on the wall. Book knows already
He just saw a real contender


That was a tuff interview, no softballs, pointing out ZERO pts in a half.
Very unKobe-like

[Fo-Real]

Glad I missed it! Sad it had to be because of the abomination that the Tyson fight was!!!

[handsome salary]

Teams can stop Booker completely if they want. Seen it before, still seeing it now. He's not going to punish down low, blow by you, shoot great from any range, outwit the defender, be a floor general or have crazy size/athleticism/dribbling skills.
Going against the top tier players opposing teams hope to just slow down cause they typically can't stop or contain completely.

[Iceman36]

Devensively we played a good game. But on offense we missed complete open shots from the beginning. Those shots were so off, I sometimes questioned my screen picture if I saw right. On a normal shooting night, we have a tight game. But so it was gruesome.

[lilfishi22]

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This is…not a very good answer at all by a “superstar” player earning $50 million/yr to be said superstar.

Have to agree. As the franchise guy and clearly the best scorer on this team, if we need buckets, he needs to try and score. Even if he has to chuck

Dunn shouldn't have more shot attempts than him

[garrick]

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This is…not a very good answer at all by a “superstar” player earning $50 million/yr to be said superstar.

Have to agree. As the franchise guy and clearly the best scorer on this team, if we need buckets, he needs to try and score. Even if he has to chuck

Dunn shouldn't have more shot attempts than him

He's sort of right as they were trapping him but he was forcing the issue in the 2nd half just driving into the paint trying to create something and ended up getting stripped, he needs to be smarter than that and try to get his points from the 3 rather than letting Dunn jack up 9 3pt attempts.

Booker's leadership is probably one of the more disappointing aspects of his game as he deflects and doesn't hold himself accountable for losses.

[kennydorglas]

Pretty clear book ain't our fp anymore.
So all our eggs lay on kds health

[dremill24]

One of the challenges here for Booker (particularly when there are no other shot creators) is he cant really create advantages off the dribble against good defenders on a regular basis. He needs a screen for real separation and that just invites another defender into the picture.

And yeah, if you can accept the trap and swing the ball, you can generate decent looks. I thought they did OK (not great but not terrible) for a good chunk of the game doing this, but the supporting cast is severely limited attacking off the dribble and even the spot up shooting was uncharacteristically bad.

But these traps are also coming from exactly where OKC wants/is prepared for, making their scrambling rotations much easier. Also they're just f***ing phenomenal at it. But if Booker can just truly beat his man off the dribble (without involving a screener/2nd defender) and force help closer to the hoop that way, you're creating an advantage that they're less prepared for and forcing them to help to more compromising parts of the floor, instead of just these easy recoveries from trapping at the 3pt line.

Theres a lot more to it than just that but generating advantages from basically nothing is something only the best of the best do and is something that has kept him sitting just outside the game's elite. Its ok to be a top 10-20 player in the league, but the difference between that and those above is what changes things at the highest levels. I think we just need to have realistic expectations. He's a damn stud out there and one of the better players in the world, but just not quite at the level that makes him undeniable against the top competition by himself. Trouble is hes paid like one of those guys, making things harder. He needs talented teammates, like most players. The FO has been pretty good but not great at providing the right ones.

Its also a one game sample on the road against an elite defense, missing his most important teammates, and on the 4th game in 6 nights in what can pretty safely be called a real uncharacteristic slump. I think it's true that he has his warts but also that these circumstances are not really indicative of what the team is designed for. I have my concerns about whether that design is optimal but it's definitely better than what was seen here.

[garrick]

One of the challenges here for Booker (particularly when there are no other shot creators) is he cant really create advantages off the dribble against good defenders on a regular basis. He needs a screen for real separation and that just invites another defender into the picture.

And yeah, if you can accept the trap and swing the ball, you can generate decent looks. I thought they did OK (not great but not terrible) for a good chunk of the game doing this, but the supporting cast is severely limited attacking off the dribble and even the spot up shooting was uncharacteristically bad.

But these traps are also coming from exactly where OKC wants/is prepared for, making their scrambling rotations much easier. Also they're just f***ing phenomenal at it. But if Booker can just truly beat his man off the dribble (without involving a screener/2nd defender) and force help closer to the hoop that way, you're creating an advantage that they're less prepared for and forcing them to help to more compromising parts of the floor, instead of just these easy recoveries from trapping at the 3pt line.

Theres a lot more to it than just that but generating advantages from basically nothing is something only the best of the best do and is something that has kept him sitting just outside the game's elite. Its ok to be a top 10-20 player in the league, but the difference between that and those above is what changes things at the highest levels. I think we just need to have realistic expectations. He's a damn stud out there and one of the better players in the world, but just not quite at the level that makes him undeniable against the top competition by himself. Trouble is hes paid like one of those guys, making things harder. He needs talented teammates, like most players. The FO has been pretty good but not great at providing the right ones.

Its also a one game sample on the road against an elite defense, missing his most important teammates, and on the 4th game in 6 nights in what can pretty safely be called a real uncharacteristic slump. I think it's true that he has his warts but also that these circumstances are not really indicative of what the team is designed for. I have my concerns about whether that design is optimal but it's definitely better than what was seen here.

Book should just model his game after Klay and just focus on getting his shots from the perimeter.

Defenses are too good nowadays and have really figured out how to kill his middle game.

[dremill24]

Spoiler:

One of the challenges here for Booker (particularly when there are no other shot creators) is he cant really create advantages off the dribble against good defenders on a regular basis. He needs a screen for real separation and that just invites another defender into the picture.

And yeah, if you can accept the trap and swing the ball, you can generate decent looks. I thought they did OK (not great but not terrible) for a good chunk of the game doing this, but the supporting cast is severely limited attacking off the dribble and even the spot up shooting was uncharacteristically bad.

But these traps are also coming from exactly where OKC wants/is prepared for, making their scrambling rotations much easier. Also they're just f***ing phenomenal at it. But if Booker can just truly beat his man off the dribble (without involving a screener/2nd defender) and force help closer to the hoop that way, you're creating an advantage that they're less prepared for and forcing them to help to more compromising parts of the floor, instead of just these easy recoveries from trapping at the 3pt line.

Theres a lot more to it than just that but generating advantages from basically nothing is something only the best of the best do and is something that has kept him sitting just outside the game's elite. Its ok to be a top 10-20 player in the league, but the difference between that and those above is what changes things at the highest levels. I think we just need to have realistic expectations. He's a damn stud out there and one of the better players in the world, but just not quite at the level that makes him undeniable against the top competition by himself. Trouble is hes paid like one of those guys, making things harder. He needs talented teammates, like most players. The FO has been pretty good but not great at providing the right ones.

Its also a one game sample on the road against an elite defense, missing his most important teammates, and on the 4th game in 6 nights in what can pretty safely be called a real uncharacteristic slump. I think it's true that he has his warts but also that these circumstances are not really indicative of what the team is designed for. I have my concerns about whether that design is optimal but it's definitely better than what was seen here.

Book should just model his game after Klay and just focus on getting his shots from the perimeter.

Defenses are too good nowadays and have really figured out how to kill his middle game.

I dunno about all that lol. He is still quite effective with the ball in his hands. Theres just a ceiling on it against the best competition, which means they have to account for it in game planning and roster building.

[lilfishi22]

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This is…not a very good answer at all by a “superstar” player earning $50 million/yr to be said superstar.

Have to agree. As the franchise guy and clearly the best scorer on this team, if we need buckets, he needs to try and score. Even if he has to chuck

Dunn shouldn't have more shot attempts than him

He's sort of right as they were trapping him but he was forcing the issue in the 2nd half just driving into the paint trying to create something and ended up getting stripped, he needs to be smarter than that and try to get his points from the 3 rather than letting Dunn jack up 9 3pt attempts.

Booker's leadership is probably one of the more disappointing aspects of his game as he deflects and doesn't hold himself accountable for losses.

In the same way playmakers like Jokic and Lebron has to take on the scoring themselves when their team is missing scorers, that's what Booker needs to do. Sure when we have 2 or 3 of the Big 3 available, he can be more of a cog in the machine but when both KD and Beal are out, we need him to be selfish.

But regardless of role, he just hasn't looked good this season. Might be the longest slump he's been in ever

[Revived]

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