Phoenix Suns: Have We Underestimated Devin Booker?
The Phoenix Suns’ Devin Booker set the court ablaze with 70 points on Friday night. Should we reassess his place among the NBA’s young stars?
There’s been a lot of hand-wringing over the manner in which the Phoenix Suns’ Devin Booker scored 70 points against the Boston Celtics Friday night.
In particular, there’s been a lot of back and forth about whether the manner in which he achieved the feat belittled it’s greatness, but I’ll leave that argument to the old men and the kids trampling their lawn.
70 points is 70 points.
The more interesting question has to do with whether we have to reassess Booker’s place in the current hierarchy of young NBA stars.
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Where Booker Ranked Before Dropping 70
Before Friday night, reading the various tea leaves throughout the basketball universe would bring you to a pretty lofty opinion of Booker already. He was already looked at around the league as the only untouchable piece of the Suns roster. However, in terms of under-23 prospects on rookie deals, he was definitely slotted below the young big men group of Towns, Embiid, Porzingis, and Jokic (not necessarily in that order, Nuggets fans. Take a breath).
That hasn’t changed.
As for wings, the Greek Freak was in a tier of his own before Booker’s big night, and still is today. After him though, the debate about the merits of the league’s young twos and threes gets a bit murkier.
We still don’t know what exactly Andrew Wiggins is going to become. Jamal Murray looks like a stud but isn’t even starting yet. Jaylen Brown is starting, but is still very much an auxiliary piece who we don’t know enough about yet. Ben Simmons hasn’t played a darn game yet.
This is the group Booker would have slotted in with. You probably could have even found some execs around the league who would have rather had Aaron Gordon or Brandon Ingram on their roster moving forward based on their untapped potential and the fact that Devin will always have certain defensive limitations.
All things considered, a ranking of under-23 prospects might have had Booker on the fringes of the top 10.
Where Booker Ranks Now
After Friday night, the NBA community needs to take a second look at the baby-faced 20-year old. Booker has now solidified himself as the proud owner of an offensive toolkit the likes of which the league hasn’t seen in a while in a player this young. The manner in which he got all those points is particularly impressive.
There are probably a dozen guys in the league right now that can get hot and drain double digit threes in a game. Yet, of Booker’s 21 FG’s, only four were from deep. He also had 26 FTA’s. The only guards in NBA history with more in a game are Kobe, Iverson, Jordan, Gilbert Arenas, Vince Carter and Sleepy Floyd. That’s fairly solid company.
Before Friday night, most would have guessed that Booker would follow a career path similar Bradley Beal. Now it looks like we might have to re-calibrate. We can’t get too excited – remember, a 20-year old Brandon Jennings scored 55 in his seventh NBA game, which was about where Booker was with two minutes and change left in the game – but his ceiling has to take at least a slight uptick.
James Harden has a very different physical frame and is an elite passer, but we also never saw the Beard’s full arsenal until his fourth year in the league. The comparison isn’t as ridiculous as it once seemed.
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The Ranking
On the totem poll of young (under-23) building blocks, Booker’s current place in the league is still under Giannis and the four cornerstone bigs. Friday night did, however, vault him past rookies Murray, Brown and Simmond. He slots in right next to Wiggins, and a hair above Miles Turner.
His defense is still a work in progress, but his future – and that of the Phoenix Suns’ – is getting a whole lot brighter.