darmani wrote:
Wow, Book is looking very good as a 3PT shooter at those highlights, but was the offense really that bad ? No open shots for him, no ball movement at all.
Moderators: bwgood77, Qwigglez, lilfishi22
darmani wrote:
Saberestar wrote:
bwgood77 wrote:I just listened to them discussing it a bit on the Lowe Post. I did say earlier I wish he would have played because I thought it would be good to play under Pop who was emphasizing defense and ball movement, plus just playing in meaningful games, etc. They mentioned how some of those guys on the 2008 olympic team and how all those guys had their best years the next year. They also talked about how Nash said he felt the 2000 olympic experience was extremely important for him and changed the trajectory of his career.
The positive is he is focusing on his health so hopefully he can be 100% healthy most if not all the year this year. Too many nagging injuries last year.
lilfishi22 wrote:More than ever....we are in the championship or bust endgame
TASTIC wrote:The dude is 22.
He already has a 70pt game on his resume and over his last 3 seasons he's averaged 24.3pt 3.9reb 4.9ast 0.9stl 2.2x3pt and 44/86 splits.
People need to get off his back, for the past 3-4 seasons he's lucky if he's had 2 legit NBA starters on the floor with him at all times.
Neat. Anyone want to summarize? I swore off of Gambo years ago.Saberestar wrote:Devin Booker catches up with Burns and Gambo as the Suns' preseason ramps up.
https://arizonasports.com/category/podcast_player/?a=4433224d-c5ac-4abd-a44d-aad901889f1f&sid=1005&n=Burns+%26+Gambo
2. Because of that point-guard void, Booker (or ‘Point Book’) was the primary ballhandler a lot last season – a contributor to him posting the NBA’s third-highest usage rate (32). What usage rate is a good sweet spot for a guy like Booker? And what other metrics should we be tracking as Booker enters his fifth NBA season?
So, first of all, traditional usage rate and “point guard” status are only slightly related. Usage rate is simply scoring attempts+turnovers divided by team scoring chances while the players is on the floor. Certainly, primary ballhandling duties could cause a player’s turnovers to rise, resulting in a small increase in this definition of usage rate, but only by a percentage point or two. Which is largely what happened with respect to Booker’s career-high usage rate last year. In 2017-18 he averaged around 30.7 scoring attempts per 100 possessions compared to 30.8 in 2018-19, but his turnovers increased by more than a tenth, going from 5.0/100 to 5.6/100.
Second, the sweet spot for a primary offensive weapon like Booker is as much as he can handle before his scoring efficiency drops too much. Individual “usage-efficiency curves” are largely theoretical at this point, but generally speaking, higher usage means more difficult shots means lower efficiency. Part of the reason star players are stars is they can take on a big offensive load without too much decline in output, and Booker set a career high in efficiency last year with his 58.1 percent True Shooting mark solidly above league average of 56.0 percent. My intuition is that the Suns will be better off if Booker can afford to dip into the high 20s usage and goose his efficiency into the 60%+ range, but a lot of that depends on if there is enough scoring around him to make that workable.
In terms of numbers to look out for in terms of Booker’s offensive role evolving into a healthier place, I’d look at things like the proportion of his makes that are assisted, which reached career low last year both on 2s (29.5 percent) and 3s (57.8 percent). More assisted shots means A) that he’s not having to work as hard to get shots and B) he’s probably getting better looks overall.
With respect to the “Point Book” phenomena you asked about, I would pay attention to some tracking data-derived possession statistics. How much does he have the ball both in terms of total time of possession but also time per touch. Last year, he possessed the ball for around 17.1 percent of the time he was on the floor, which is quite high for a non-PG, and was a sharp rise from 13.8 percent TOP% the year previously. Regardless of his topline usage, favorable changes in those two areas could indicate that at least the miles he’s logging won’t be quite as hard.
Saberestar wrote:
Russell closed the interview saying this: “When we’re all on the same team — I ain’t gonna tell you which team because I don’t know — we’re gonna do this again.”