The Devin Booker Thread

[ball teacher]

OK guys, I watched some highlights on Booker. What I see is that he does have a nice shot as we've already heard, he is a decent athlete and he does defend the passing lanes well as he seems to have gotten a few steals from defending the passing lanes. What I didn't like was the way Booker scores. He seems to be very limited in that he doesnt seem to be great at creating off the dribble for himself. He comes off screens and catches and shoots, and he is a set shooter, he woud do well in games where a PG kicks out to him after drawing the defense in.

At #9, I think there would be guys who you can find as a steal who can do more offensively than just being a jump shooter. I've seen Booker compared to Klay Thompson, well they are both light skinned and they can both shoot, but that's about where the comparisons end. Klay is a little taller, but the big difference is Klay can break a defender down, score off the dribble, get to the rim while Booker is more of a set shooter. Booker is more like a JJ Redick, Kyle Korver type. I have two vids of the two, both when they were in college to compare their games. I'm not sold on Booker at #9.

Booker highlights
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkoA1hWlo1o[/youtube]

Klay Thompson Washington St highlights
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8yFLtdGZW0[/youtube]

[ball teacher]

a few more videos I found of Booker, he's got a good set shot, you just dont see much versatility in his game offensively

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaWP3n7Qq00[/youtube]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XH9dWt4wcb4[/youtube]

[mrknowitall215]

Chad Ford's latest mock as of yesterday still has the Hornets taking Devin Booker at #9, specifically if Mario Hezonja is off the board to Detroit at #8...

The Hornets are another team that, all things considered, would prefer a veteran who could step in from day one. They had no intention of being in the lottery this season and have no intention of returning to it next year. Their need is obvious: The Hornets finished dead last in the NBA in 3-point shooting percentage at 31.8 percent last season. Hezonja, Oubre, Johnson, Frank Kaminsky and Myles Turner can all shoot 3s and would be good fits. But assuming Hezonja is off the board, Booker might be the best option. Other than Hezonja, Booker is the best shooter of the group, and while he's the youngest player in the draft, he has a terrific basketball IQ and plays with maturity. The Hornets don't need a home run here. A solid double will do.

[Snidely FC]

Looking at ____'s numbers, the first thing the stands out is his usage relative to the other top prospects. Using 14.6 possessions per-game, _____ ranks 15th of the 21 players in this group. Surrounded by upperclassmen like _____ and _____, _____ was not always a focal point for the _____ offensively.

Often touted as an excellent jump shooter, _____ ranked 5th worst among the 21 players in this group in shooting efficiency pulling up off the dribble (0.615 Points Per-Possession) and below average off the catch (1.074 PPP vs. 1.12 PPP). Struggling to find his range for stretches, _____'s excellent shooting mechanics and footwork began to pay dividends for him down the stretch, as his catch and shoot efficiency over the last 12 games of the season would have placed him third in this group at 1.372 PPP. _____'s numbers for the whole year do not give much credence to comparisons to Ray Allen, but his play late in the year gave teams an eyeful of his prolific spot-up scoring ability.

So, the above quote describes a guy who went #3 in the 2012 draft, and I post it here not only because I think he's the best current NBA player comp for Booker, but to point out to people not to get so hung up on a college player's numbers, especially if they're as young as Booker. If you guessed (or looked it up lol) Bradley Beal, congrats. Booker is young. He's still going to be 18 when the NBA season starts. You look at his shot mechanics, his size (very similar to Beal btw), work ethic, decent athleticism, and you've got to believe he is going to be a valuable NBA player in several years. You gotta figure its gonna be 3 or 4, though, years before he's a solid rotation guy - and he'll still be just 21. If CHA calls Booker's name I'm not gonna be mad, just patient. To me, drafting Booker will be a sign that mgmt has decided to play the long game, taking the time to develop high character, young ball players. Relatively low risk, high reward pick imo.

[DY_nasty]

Low Risk? If dude can't shoot in the NBA he literally has zero skills to fall back on. Literally everything except his shot is a massive work in progress. If the Hornets don't take him, he likely falls out the lottery completely.

[JDR720]

http://www.draftexpress.com/article/Dev ... rview-5063

workout/interview

[Snidely FC]

Low Risk? If dude can't shoot in the NBA he literally has zero skills to fall back on. Literally everything except his shot is a massive work in progress. If the Hornets don't take him, he likely falls out the lottery completely.

Look, Booker is not my first choice, but there is a reasonable chance CHA could draft this kid, if guys like Stan J and Hezonja are off the board, so I am looking for the upside story. I think if you go back and read about Beal at age 18, this kid is similar. Beal was drafted out of FL as a shooter. Three years later Beal is only 21 and an elite shooter. I can see a similar career trajectory for Booker. He'll be the youngest player in the draft, decent size, good shooting mechanics, played for Kentucky, smart.

Chad Ford posted this 4 hrs ago after watching Booker workout:

"I think the final five [playoff teams, including the Clippers] were the top five shooting teams in the NBA. It shows you how important shooting is to a team," Booker told ESPN.com. "I think teams can never have too many shooters. I think the league is evolving well for me. But I can do a lot of things. I had a lot of talent around me in Kentucky, where all I needed to do was space the floor. So I made the game simple. But I think I can show a lot more. I'm trying to develop into an elite two-way guard. I play with my IQ a lot. People are starting to figure out I'm a little more athletic than they thought with the combine scores. At the end of the day, it's all going to show."

Booker's athletic scores were a surprise at the combine. He ended up with the fastest shuttle run (2.75 seconds), fastest lane agility score (10.27 seconds) and a solid 34.5-inch maximum vertical. While the vertical didn't wow anyone, the other two scores did.

His athleticism showed in the workout, as well. He gets terrific elevation on his jump shot and showed quickness off the ball and explosiveness at the rim.

Booker was coming back from a Friday workout in Denver. He's already hit Oklahoma City and Phoenix and has a Heat workout scheduled for Monday. Essentially, he's working out for every team in the back half of the lottery, and the good news for him is that all seven need shooters. Denver, Detroit, Charlotte, Miami, Indiana, Utah, Phoenix and Oklahoma City are all good fits for Booker.

[JMAC3]

My biggest concern with this guy still is his level of aggressiveness. That is something that is hard to teach and usually just comes naturally, especially considering he is stepping up a level of competition.

He has a lot of tools... size, quick release, age, BBIQ... but he still needs to work on ball handling, losing baby fat and adding muscle, and improve his defense in order to guard NBA guards.

Also, he has no resemblance of being able to draw fouls and has no high level experience running the pick and roll, which is a necessity for all guards in the NBA.

All these factors still place him behind Hezonja, Stan Johnson and RJ Hunter in my mind... but he is ahead of Oubre and Dekker now.

[DY_nasty]

Low Risk? If dude can't shoot in the NBA he literally has zero skills to fall back on. Literally everything except his shot is a massive work in progress. If the Hornets don't take him, he likely falls out the lottery completely.

Look, Booker is not my first choice, but there is a reasonable chance CHA could draft this kid, if guys like Stan J and Hezonja are off the board, so I am looking for the upside story. I think if you go back and read about Beal at age 18, this kid is similar. Beal was drafted out of FL as a shooter. Three years later Beal is only 21 and an elite shooter. I can see a similar career trajectory for Booker. He'll be the youngest player in the draft, decent size, good shooting mechanics, played for Kentucky, smart.

Chad Ford posted this 4 hrs ago after watching Booker workout:

"I think the final five [playoff teams, including the Clippers] were the top five shooting teams in the NBA. It shows you how important shooting is to a team," Booker told ESPN.com. "I think teams can never have too many shooters. I think the league is evolving well for me. But I can do a lot of things. I had a lot of talent around me in Kentucky, where all I needed to do was space the floor. So I made the game simple. But I think I can show a lot more. I'm trying to develop into an elite two-way guard. I play with my IQ a lot. People are starting to figure out I'm a little more athletic than they thought with the combine scores. At the end of the day, it's all going to show."

Booker's athletic scores were a surprise at the combine. He ended up with the fastest shuttle run (2.75 seconds), fastest lane agility score (10.27 seconds) and a solid 34.5-inch maximum vertical. While the vertical didn't wow anyone, the other two scores did.

His athleticism showed in the workout, as well. He gets terrific elevation on his jump shot and showed quickness off the ball and explosiveness at the rim.

Booker was coming back from a Friday workout in Denver. He's already hit Oklahoma City and Phoenix and has a Heat workout scheduled for Monday. Essentially, he's working out for every team in the back half of the lottery, and the good news for him is that all seven need shooters. Denver, Detroit, Charlotte, Miami, Indiana, Utah, Phoenix and Oklahoma City are all good fits for Booker.

Beal wasn't drafted as a shooter though. Hell, he actually had a relatively unimpressive shooting season considering his hype at the time. Beal was drafted because people saw Brandon Roy in him (really wasn't fair at all to Beal imo).

But Beal's ballhandling is one of the main things holding him back from making that leap to the next level - and again, Booker is a legitimately terrible ballhandler. Guys don't just pick that up in the NBA. If the comfort with the ball isn't present in college, it almost never appears in the NBA. I really can't think of too many guys who were just outright bad with the ball that even became 'decent' later. Just look at Henderson.

I don't want people thinking that I hate Booker (because I actually hate Oubre more by far) but there's just too many other guys I'd rather see. Even with trading back.

[Dr Positivity]

Just as a heads up I have a theory that the Hornets will not take Booker based on this. When the Cody Zeller pick happened I remember there was reports about it being "numbers-based". Under Rich Cho the Bobcats/Hornets picks have aligned pretty decently with the ratings of draft stat guy Layne Vashro and his stat EWP for draft prospects. In their draft years in his stat the players rated: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1BBrEnixdwz5fCnxrvxbEF810hdJDjER8whCyi5vwhtg/edit#gid=1

Vonleh - 9.6 EWP (6th)
Zeller - 10.9 EWP (2nd)
MKG - 8.4 EWP (3rd)
Kemba - 8 EWP (6th)

For 2015 ratings posted here http://apbr.org/metrics/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=8904&start=45 Booker only rated 20th with a much lower rating than any of the above 4 players. The top 20:

1 D'Angelo Russell 11.7
2 Karl Towns 11.4
3 Justise Winslow 9.5
4 Jahlil Okafor 9.4
5 Stanley Johnson 7.6
6 Kevon Looney 7.6
7 Frank Kaminsky 7.3
8 Delon Wright 6.3
9 Kelly Oubre 6.2
10 Tyus Jones 6
11 Willie Cauley-Stein 5.7
12 Myles Turner 5.7
13 Rondae Hollis-Jefferson 5.4
14 Christian Wood 4.9
15 Justin Anderson 4.6
16 Sam Dekker 4.5
17 Chris McCullough 4.5
18 Jerian Grant 3.6
19 Branden Dawson 3.5
20 Devin Booker 3.5

I would keep an eye on Looney and Kaminsky as dark horses despite the positional fit issues

[LofJ]

Thanks for the information. I suspect our top two targets are Hezonja and Johnson, followed by Payne. Depending on who is on the board I think one of those three will be the pick.

[BigSlam]

I know it's so to only a glorified uptempo shoot around, but my word Booker looks and especially sounds impressive in this package (I like the way he speaks).

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-JhTHC-pdw[/youtube]

That explosion!!

[pellom]

I know it's so to only a glorified uptempo shoot around, but my word Booker looks and especially sounds impressive in this package (I like the way he speaks).

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-JhTHC-pdw[/youtube]

That explosion!!

Those mechanics are..... PERFECT.

[Liver_Pooty]

Clifford worked 1 on 1 with Booker after today's workouts per Bonnell.

Take that for what you will. I personally think that's significant

[Liver_Pooty]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/rick_bonnell/status/608650489098596354[/tweet]

[EwingSweatsALot]

I keep mentioning this because I think it's hilarious. But if we draft him can his thread title be

Lick My Ride: The Devin Booker Thread.

[fatlever]

Absolutely!!! Great idea. Makes me want to draft him now.

[BeesWax]

How does this get started? So weird.

[Go_Hornets]

Pure shooter with a high IQ and he's not a liability on defense? Get this guy

[BeesWax]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/rick_bonnell/status/608650489098596354[/tweet]

I do wonder if it was maybe to get a feel for his defensive potential. Put him through some little things to test quickness or reactions.