The Phoenix Suns have been a trainwreck this season. As they tumble back down the standings, there hasn’t been a lot of things about which to celebrate. But by and large, the best positive to take from this season has been the emergence of the baby-faced, youngest player in the league, shooting guard Devin Booker.
Devin Booker was born on October 30, 1996. Since the month of January, Booker has averaged over 30 minutes per game for the Phoenix Suns, a professional basketball team. In the month of March, he has played in nine games, averaging 21.3 points and 5.1 assists over that span, while shooting 42.1 percent from the field and 88 percent from the line.
I was born on April 7th, 1997. This season, I captained my intramural college basketball team to a 1-3 season, in which we were eliminated from playoff contention in the final game, despite my season-high eight points in the loss. I failed to connect on any of my three free throws throughout the season, and I’d estimate my field-goal percentage to be somewhere in the low 30s percentile.
Despite only being born a few months apart, and me having more experience in a leadership role in basketball, it’s safe to say Devin Booker’s potential and career trajectory are infinitely higher than mine. And while you can’t definitively say Booker will have a better career than me, the Suns have to be ecstatic with what they have been seeing from their 13th overall pick in last season’s draft, the youngest player in the NBA this year.
Booker hails from Grand Rapids, Michigan, and as the son of Melvin Booker, a fringe NBA player in the 90s, he comes from a basketball heritage. His college career lasted one season, as he found himself at the professional basketball breeding ground of the University of Kentucky. Surrounded by heaps of other talented and NBA-bound players, it was easy for Booker to fall behind some of the other more heralded prospects. But in their platoon system, although his minutes and numbers weren’t staggering, as was the case with most of the Kentucky team, he still showed off his talents to the world. Shooting 47 percent from the field, and 41 percent from three, Booker’s sharpshooting was instrumental in Kentucky’s record-setting season. His play earned him SEC Sixth Man of the Year honors, and his smooth shot earned him a spot on the Phoenix roster, as the Suns selected him at the back end of the lottery.
As an 18-year-old rookie, Booker wasn’t expected to come flying out of the gate, but he was solid coming off the bench behind Phoenix’s well-paid starting duo of Eric Bledsoe and Brandon Knight. In his limited minutes, Booker maintained his shooting stroke from college, shooting 47.3 percent from the field in December and 50 percent from three (on slightly more than one attempt per game). His first couple months were slow but encouraging, and then Bledsoe went down for the season.
The injury to Bledsoe inserted Booker into a bigger and more prominent role as the Suns’ starting shooting guard, and he hasn’t disappointed. After seeing about 20 minutes per game in January, Booker has averaged over 33 minutes per game since, including almost 40 minutes in the month of March.
In that time, he has emerged as a major factor in the offense, hauling up over 18 shots per game in March, good for 21.8 points per game. Booker thrived at Kentucky playing off-ball, and he has had even more success in that role in Phoenix. It is nothing short of extremely difficult to follow Booker through the multitude of screens set for him, and he has made the defenders who couldn’t keep up pay. Booker is shooting 44.7 percent on catch-and-shoot chances, including 43.4 percent specifically on three-point catch-and-shoot opportunities. His deadly accuracy from beyond the arc has made help defenders close out on him hard, and he has taken advantage of that in a way he didn’t at Kentucky: by putting the ball on the floor.
Booker wasn’t a ball handler at Kentucky, but he controlled the offense in high school, and that skillset has returned to him at Phoenix, especially in the absence of Bledsoe and Knight at times. In March, Booker has averaged 5.1 assists per game. His shooting ability draws a lot of attention from the defense, and he has taken advantage of that increased attention to put his teammates in positions to score. The development of Booker the playmaker has to be exciting for Phoenix, adding another player who can create to their ranks, and as a team that hasn’t been afraid in the past to have a surplus of point guards, this development fits nicely into general manager Ryan McDonough’s plans.
Booker has looked extremely poised and developed for the youngest player in the league, but his success hasn’t come without hiccups. As his three-point attempts per game have crept up over five a game, Booker’s three-point percentage has dropped dramatically, down to 28 percent since the All-Star break. He is still a threat from deep that opponents have to respect, but the rookie’s been much less efficient in his expanded role. Booker also has struggled mightily on defense, as he has throughout most of his career. Most of Phoenix’s most-played lineups that include Booker have terrible net ratings, although that is a testament to his teammates as much it is to Booker.
He also needs to, as the case is with most eighteen- and nineteen-year-olds, bulk up more. Shooting guards are getting bigger and stronger, and Booker still has a smaller frame, although that will surely improve as he matures.
And that is the biggest strength of Booker: his age. Most comparisons and the hype he has received are premature and generally too high; it’s hard not to be excited about what Booker has done at such a young age.
Devin Booker still has a long way to go, but the abysmal Phoenix Suns are happy to let him take as much time as he needs to get there. He may not reach the lofty comparisons that have been tossed out recently, but it would appear the Suns got an absolute steal with the 13th pick, and Devin Booker appears to be on his way to a much longer and successful basketball career than myself.
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