Devin Booker

[Qwigglez]

Devin Booker is a superstar. I can't wait to have players around him to see what he is capable of, especially in the playoffs.

BTW, so far in January he is putting up 26.6, 6.1, 4.5, 1.1, and shooting 40% from 3. Also shooting almost 8 FT's a game.

[gaspar]

Read on Twitter

[phx#7]

I'm honestly surprised not by the hate (some people are just haters) but how polarising Booker is. KAT is a guy that's almost universally liked even with his poor defense but Booker seems to have a lot of fans split down the middle.

My opinion on this is that Booker lacks the pedigree of an elite prospect but he also wasn't some overlooked prospect from some small school or a foreign player layered with mystery and excitement. He was a good prospect that people knew about that was supposed to be a good college player that had a chance to develop into an NBA player.

Now he's done things that only all-time greats have done at such a young age so either he's changed, the narrative people decided about him before he even played a game is wrong or the way he is accomplishing things is "wrong". He didn't go through a massive growth spurt and he wasn't an athletic freak who developed a jumper, he's merely refined his game so that only leaves 2 options.

A lot of people have a hard time admitting they are wrong and would rather find ways to justify their position than re-evaluate. First it was Booker's lack of efficiency(which still gets used despite his improvement in this area) and now going forward it will be team success.

It reminds me a bit of how people reacted to Nash's career arc. There was a lot of flak when he first made the All-Star team with the Mavs but that paled in comparison to when he became an MVP candidate.

[Blackification]

It's also hard to change narratives when people have their minds made up and are just casual viewers who don't watch the games. It's like how a lot of people refer to the Suns as a trash fire and terrible team and all that because of our 3 game start, but we have a better record than these other rebuilding teams with "a better future, and prospect pool"

[JMac1]

You can now debate that Booker is the best from the 2015 class.....he is that good. KAT gets his points and rebs....but he isn’t AD good yet. For argument sake I’ll put Booker ahead of Kristaps again.

Like it has been mentioned, people would rather look like a fool than be wrong.

[lilfishi22]

Amare the only guy on Area 21 to have Booked on his All Star reserves list

[garrick]

He has better numbers than Damian Lillard except for assists, he definitely deserves an all star nod but Phoenix gets even less attention than Portland does.

[suns91fan]

He has better numbers than Damian Lillard except for assists, he definitely deserves an all star nod but Phoenix gets even less attention than Portland does.

BPM: Booker vs Lillard (1.4 vs 5.3)
WS/48: Booker vs Lillard (0.097 vs 0.189)

Let's not get ahead of ourselves. While difference between them isn't as large as numbers above suggest (mainly because i believe defensive half of the above stats to be somewhat flawed), it's still a clear advantage in Lillard's favor. He probably deserves to make it, but Booker doesn't. And that's fine. I'm glad that Booker made massive improvements compared to his two previous seasons, but there's more work to be done. If he keeps improving i'm sure he'll be make an all-star game soon.

I still remember when Dragic got snubbed in favor of Lillard in 13-14, even though Dragic was simply better. Like many Suns fans, i disagreed with it. This is now similar thing, just with reversed roles. It would simply be hypocritical to say that Booker deserves it this year more than Lillard. But if Booker somehow makes it, it will be a nice payback for 13-14.

[Damkac]

https://forums.realgm.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1663346#start_here
"What is Devin Booker's Ceiling? "

Not nearly as high as everyone thinks. He doesn't look likely to ever be an adequate defender. And I'm not sure he's skilled enough to be a kyrie/kemba/lillard type offensive player.

He needs to convert to PG to become less of a defensive liability.

Top 50-75 player for a few years is probably his ceiling but Im not sure he ever cracks top 100.

And i came in 3rd for school president by putting up posters of myself wearing nothing but a jockstrap and shoulder pads that said "--- always uses protection" . Who cares about a popularity contest.

Im talking about actual substance. Booker doesnt have any yet. He's a neutral player. His defense completely negates his offense

Never happen of course, but Suns FO calls the Hornets and says..."We'll trade you Devin Booker for Kemba Walker straight up". Charlotte FO calls --- and says..."Can we trade Kemba Walker for Devin Booker? It's your call buddy"

Then you say to the Hornets FO- "_____ __________ ______"

We're waiting, for the record

RIght now they are world's apart. Booker wouldn't be in the same hemisphere as Kemba Walker who is a top ~25 player in the league.

There's not a ton of context so I'll just say for the next 4 years since that's a decent estimate of contract length I'd take Kemba. His knees are deteriorating and Kemba is a player who depends a lot of athleticism so I'll concede it's possible that Booker could be the better player in 4-5 years. But Kemba has such a stranglehold over the next 2-3 that banking those Kemba years now just makes a lot more sense.

Kemba is easily the better offensive AND defensive player.

What a funny person!

[Mulhollanddrive]

People are sheep ESPN hasn't told them yet that he's a star and one of the best clutch players in the league at 21.

[In2ition]

https://forums.realgm.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1663346#start_here
"What is Devin Booker's Ceiling? "

Not nearly as high as everyone thinks. He doesn't look likely to ever be an adequate defender. And I'm not sure he's skilled enough to be a kyrie/kemba/lillard type offensive player.

He needs to convert to PG to become less of a defensive liability.

Top 50-75 player for a few years is probably his ceiling but Im not sure he ever cracks top 100.

Never happen of course, but Suns FO calls the Hornets and says..."We'll trade you Devin Booker for Kemba Walker straight up". Charlotte FO calls HoopsMalone and says..."Can we trade Kemba Walker for Devin Booker? It's your call buddy"

Then you say to the Hornets FO- "_____ __________ ______"

We're waiting, for the record

RIght now they are world's apart. Booker wouldn't be in the same hemisphere as Kemba Walker who is a top ~25 player in the league.

There's not a ton of context so I'll just say for the next 4 years since that's a decent estimate of contract length I'd take Kemba. His knees are deteriorating and Kemba is a player who depends a lot of athleticism so I'll concede it's possible that Booker could be the better player in 4-5 years. But Kemba has such a stranglehold over the next 2-3 that banking those Kemba years now just makes a lot more sense.

Kemba is easily the better offensive AND defensive player.

What a clown!

HoopsMalone might have one of the lowest BballIQs of any poster, but he is delusional enough to think he's the smartest person in the room.

[bwgood77]

He has better numbers than Damian Lillard except for assists, he definitely deserves an all star nod but Phoenix gets even less attention than Portland does.

BPM: Booker vs Lillard (1.4 vs 5.3)
WS/48: Booker vs Lillard (0.097 vs 0.189)

Let's not get ahead of ourselves. While difference between them isn't as large as numbers above suggest (mainly because i believe defensive half of the above stats to be somewhat flawed), it's still a clear advantage in Lillard's favor. He probably deserves to make it, but Booker doesn't. And that's fine. I'm glad that Booker made massive improvements compared to his two previous seasons, but there's more work to be done. If he keeps improving i'm sure he'll be make an all-star game soon.

I still remember when Dragic got snubbed in favor of Lillard in 13-14, even though Dragic was simply better. Like many Suns fans, i disagreed with it. This is now similar thing, just with reversed roles. It would simply be hypocritical to say that Booker deserves it this year more than Lillard. But if Booker somehow makes it, it will be a nice payback for 13-14.

And of snubs, it's hard to argue Booker is a bigger western snub than any of these other guys when you look at all the numbers, advanced stats, defense, net rating, etc...

http://bkref.com/tiny/csvCr

[bwgood77]

https://forums.realgm.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1663346#start_here
"What is Devin Booker's Ceiling? "

Not nearly as high as everyone thinks. He doesn't look likely to ever be an adequate defender. And I'm not sure he's skilled enough to be a kyrie/kemba/lillard type offensive player.

He needs to convert to PG to become less of a defensive liability.

Top 50-75 player for a few years is probably his ceiling but Im not sure he ever cracks top 100.

RIght now they are world's apart. Booker wouldn't be in the same hemisphere as Kemba Walker who is a top ~25 player in the league.

There's not a ton of context so I'll just say for the next 4 years since that's a decent estimate of contract length I'd take Kemba. His knees are deteriorating and Kemba is a player who depends a lot of athleticism so I'll concede it's possible that Booker could be the better player in 4-5 years. But Kemba has such a stranglehold over the next 2-3 that banking those Kemba years now just makes a lot more sense.

Kemba is easily the better offensive AND defensive player.

What a clown!

This guy might have one of the lowest BballIQs of any poster, but he is delusional enough to think he's the smartest person in the room.

There is no need for personal attacks. Also it's not good to quote someone from another board and call them a clown or low IQ poster. If you want to discuss a post from another board, you should take their name out of the quote like I did here so they don't get notifications (and it best to take their name out of the text).

Also, if you edit your posts and remove the name, then the notifications will disappear.

[In2ition]

https://forums.realgm.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1663346#start_here
"What is Devin Booker's Ceiling? "


What a clown!

This guy might have one of the lowest BballIQs of any poster, but he is delusional enough to think he's the smartest person in the room.

There is no need for personal attacks. Also it's not good to quote someone from another board and call them a clown or low IQ poster. If you want to discuss a post from another board, you should take their name out of the quote like I did here so they don't get notifications (and it best to take their name out of the text).

Also, if you edit your posts and remove the name, then the notifications will disappear.

Gee, thanks Dad. I remember that next time.

[Damkac]

That's a slightly different question since we'd have team control via RFA over Booker for the next 5 years and Kemba only has 1.5 years left on a deal that can not realistically be extended.

I'd be forced to consider it since Booker will really help us tank this year for a good pick. But I think Booker will be huge negative value on his next contract so ultimately I'd decline the deal. I'd prefer a draft pick or better young prospect like Anunoby

You're underestimating how terrible Booker is defensively. He's not world's apart from IT on that end.

That is 100% wholly inaccurate. I'm not interested in continuing this discussion with you until you approach the conversation with a basic analytical approach to the game.

I explained why this is the case analytically and you reply like a condescending jerk. Well done.

If he adds 2 points on offense and subtracts 2 points on defense he's a breakeven player. That puts you well outside the top 100. So when you say "he's not even close to the top 100" well yeah I guess you're right. He's not. But not in the direction you were talking about.

What Cleveland picks? The Brooklyn one will probably be like the 8th pick and how do you dump contracts on Cleveland? They have nearly the biggest payroll in the league well over the cap.

The Brooklyn pick and the Cleveland pick + a Cedi Osman.

As for contracts, the Suns unload Chandler for Frye for instance since he's an expiring.

So, it'd be something like:

PHX gets: Brooklyn pick, Cleveland pick, Cedi Osman, Channing Frye
CLE gets: Devin Booker and Tyson Chandler.

I'd pull the trigger on this.

Not Suns related but still funny as hell:

Top 5-10 player in the league when he is in that 26-30 range.

Has to compete with Lauri, etc.

wait what?

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

Where ever you would rank a rich mans prime dirk, thats where lauri will be. Gonna be fun to see.

[Midnight_Suns]

I'm a big fan of free speech but if you suggest that this team should trade Devin Booker you should be banned from the forum. You are killing the brain cells of everyone who reads such idiotic suggestions.

[Kerrsed]

I'm a big fan of free speech but if you suggest that this team should trade Devin Booker you should be banned from the forum. You are killing the brain cells of everyone who reads such idiotic suggestions.

1. He isnt a Suns fan (Supposed Hornets fan).

2. You wont be seeing him around ever again. The Ban Hammer strikith!

[bwgood77]

I'm a big fan of free speech but if you suggest that this team should trade Devin Booker you should be banned from the forum. You are killing the brain cells of everyone who reads such idiotic suggestions.

1. He isnt a Suns fan (Supposed Hornets fan).

2. You wont be seeing him around ever again. The Ban Hammer strikith!

Hornets fan wasn't the one who suggested the trade (it was a Warriors fan)...and they are both still around, though the Hornets fan looks to be getting a 7 day break from the General Board (which is what I think you were referring to).

[Kerrsed]

I'm a big fan of free speech but if you suggest that this team should trade Devin Booker you should be banned from the forum. You are killing the brain cells of everyone who reads such idiotic suggestions.

1. He isnt a Suns fan (Supposed Hornets fan).

2. You wont be seeing him around ever again. The Ban Hammer strikith!

Hornets fan wasn't the one who suggested the trade (it was a Warriors fan)...and they are both still around, though the Hornets fan looks to be getting a 7 day break from the General Board (which is what I think you were referring to).

Gotcha. I went through that whole thread this morning and could have sworn it was Hoops.

And they really need to fix the viewing of ban specifications on user profiles. All it says was he was banned, and not it being temporary or board specific (Which is unfortunate).

[bwgood77]

1. He isnt a Suns fan (Supposed Hornets fan).

2. You wont be seeing him around ever again. The Ban Hammer strikith!

Hornets fan wasn't the one who suggested the trade (it was a Warriors fan)...and they are both still around, though the Hornets fan looks to be getting a 7 day break from the General Board (which is what I think you were referring to).

Gotcha. I went through that whole thread this morning and could have sworn it was Hoops.

And they really need to fix the viewing of ban specifications on user profiles. All it says was he was banned, and not it being temporary or board specific (Which is unfortunate).

Well if it's a ban by a mod, the longest it can be is 12 hours. If it's a ban by the Admin it will be 3 or 7 days or permanent.