Booker Discussion, news and highlights

[sunsbg]

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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.

[Saberestar]

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Bill Simmons just needs to shut up and respect Book's decision.

[Saberestar]

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[phx#7]

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If Booker were on team USA and they were struggling the way they are he'd be getting most of the criticism. Instead its a bunch of players I keep seeing people say are better than Booker, yet he's still catching flak.

Hopefully Booker stays healthy and plays the entire year the way he finished last season. I'd really like to see him go on a revenge tour, because you know he's kept all the receipts for the crap that has been flung at him for the teams dysfunction.

[bwgood77]

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.

[TASTIC]

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.

[Saberestar]

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Book does not stop working on his game. Great.

[Saberestar]

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He was really good with his left hand already at that early age.

[lilfishi22]

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.

After watching the WC and having time to think about it, I think he should've played. I think pros and cons. Cons are that he won't be focused on working on his game because he'll have to play a particular role for team USA (not necessarily a huge con) and he'll have to dedicate/give up his summer to do what is asked of him. The other con is that he won't be able to fully focus on getting healthy after seemingly going into each of the least few seasons nursing some nagging injury. So I definitely get the desire to just heal up and go into the season in the best possible shape.

I don't really consider the injury thing a con because you could get injured in any facet of the game, from personal training to scrimmaging to play international basketball. I mean, Cousins tore his ACL in a pick up game in the depths of the offseason.

In my opinion though, I think being part of Team USA (even though the US had an appalling showing) is massively beneficial. Yeah the KD's, Lebron's and the Steph's aren't there so he can't be around winners but Lowe's point about playing in games that actually matter would be a new and rewarding experience for Book and it's something that would really help his mindset going forward.

[Saberestar]

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

[Maze]

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.

I always said Devin Booker is the most misunderstood young star in the league.People just love to hate him.If you go over to the general board, he's the worst young player in the league lol.I like the way he's wired.He has some nastiness in his game.To go with a killer instinct.Can't wait to see him prove all his doubters wrong

[MrMiyagi]

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

Neat. Anyone want to summarize? I swore off of Gambo years ago.

[bwgood77]

As mentioned in the season speculation thread, from The Athletic...

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.

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[cberry78]

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Looks like those one-on-one's with KD are paying off.

[bwgood77]

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.”

[Saberestar]

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[Damkac]

https://www.nba.com/article/2019/11/08/kia-mvp-ladder-week-1-2019-20
Book in the top 10!
Nice to see him finally getting some respect.

[NTB]

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