HOU$TON
formerly convertibleburt
- Apr 14, 2016
- 13,513
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**OFFICIAL 2019 NBA OFFSEASON THREAD**
- Thread in 'Sports & Training' Thread starter Started by HIM,
- Start date
- Status
- Mar 24, 2001
- 44,833
- 66,536
I'll just let a blog boy tell it and then maybe it will be better received.
Devin Booker: Is He Any Good?
March 21, 2019 - by Fox Doucette
Devin Booker is, in the sense that the object of basketball is to score points and he once scored 70 points in a game, good at basketball.
But on the other hand, basketball is a team sport and it doesn’t matter if you put up numbers higher than some professional golfers routinely put up in their sport if your efforts do not ultimately lead to your team scoring more points than the other team.
The Phoenix Suns are, to put it as charitably as possible, a garbage fire. I’ll leave it to your imagination to find less charitable ways than that to describe the Suns organization.
Booker, meanwhile, has been at the center of all that, and if we’ve learned anything from true great players, it’s that if your best player can’t at the very least drag your team out of picking first in the lottery, he might not be the kind of player that can get you to the playoffs no matter what you put around him.
That’s the point at issue here. Is Devin Booker useful as anything other than a one-dimensional scorer who’d be great as the third-best player on a team, or is he the guy you build a franchise around like his reputation and salary would have you believe?
The bar’s set high here. To clear it and get Confirmed, Booker needs to be definitively exonerated of the charge that he’s part of the problem or, put another way, if he was the best player on a better team, he’d be at least on the level of someone like Russell Westbrook or Paul Georgeor…well, maybe not LeBron James, but not laughed out of the room when Bron’s name comes up.
Basically, top-tier All Star level.
Let’s-a go!
The Counting Stats
Booker finally reached 52.2 percent on his two-point shots this season after shooting around 46 percent his first three years from inside the arc.
Sadly, his three-point shooting fell off a cliff, dropping to 32.3 percent from 38.3 in 2017-18 and, it should be noted, worse than the 34.3 percent he barfed out as a rookie.
Sure, his eFG% rose, all the way to 51 percent, but you have to be a special kind of awful from the perimeter to actually drag your eFG% down by shooting threes.
Per 36 minutes, Booker is scoring 26 points, exactly the same as last year, and he’s doing it on only 0.6 fewer shots in that time frame, not exactly a flying leap in efficiency.
Booker is averaging 6.8 assists a game this year because the Suns don’t have a point guard, but it’s come at the cost of turning the ball over a wretched 4.1 times; he has 388 assists and 134 bad-pass turnovers alone.
Oh, and as for that solid two-point shooting, part of it is because he’s doing a better job both getting to the rim (23.1 percent of his shots are inside three feet, a career-high) and making those shots (63.2 percent, his best mark since his rookie year), but the other part is an unsustainable success rate from 4-16 feet that lives in the aborted-drive/poor ball spacing zone and comes with about a 48 percent success rate, miles above his career marks from those distances.
Unless you’re LaMarcus Aldridge, you don’t make your bread and butter in the short midrange.
The Advanced Stats
Here’s where it all goes sideways.
Booker was a negative-VORP player his first two years in the league. That is not terribly unusual for a rookie guard on a bad team.
But his VORP last year and this year is just 1.2, which is lower than Darren Collison (1.7).
And I’m sorry, but when DC, who is not having an All-Star year by any stretch, puts up a better bottom-line advanced stat number than you do, you don’t get to call yourself anything resembling elite.
A 1.2 VORP is about 3 wins over a season better than if you get hurt and they have to fish a guy out of the G-League to replace you.
Booker also has just .064 WS/48, which would make him an average player on a 25-win team.
And he does all this with a 32.1 usage rate that immediately calls into question whether you really want him using all of your possessions.
All of this serves to explain why the Suns are just 2.3 points better in Net Rating (just a six-win swing over a season) with him on the floor than off.
Booker is also a disaster movie defensively, so putrid that he’s barely above zero Defensive Win Shares, and his DBPM belongs in conversation with Shaqtin-era Harden and fresh-out-of-college Steph.
Even when you account for the fact that he’s on the Suns, the numbers aren’t kind.
THE VERDICT!
You know the question from the top of the show? If Booker’s not part of the solution but part of the problem?
Sure, he’s 22. But this is four years in the league and his improvement has been from “raw but with a ton of potential” to “if he’s your best player, you’re tanking.”
Busted, busted, busted. On his best day, he’s the rich man’s Lou Williams. He’d be the instant-offense sixth man on any team that doesn’t completely suck.
Where's all the elite basketball minds in here who said it was hogwash to claim Booker puts up empty stats? Straight hush mode. Turns out he's the g leaguer and not his teammates. Tuh
VARNELL HILL
@B Sox
@antidope
nick.
addict4sneakers
@hardens beard
HUSH
- Apr 5, 2017
- 22,188
- 63,106
Wait...What???
Stop what you’re doing right now, go to YouTube...and type in John Wall.
- Dec 27, 2012
- 73,559
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- Dec 27, 2012
- 73,559
- 100,557
Where's all the elite basketball minds in here who said it was hogwash to claim Booker puts up empty stats? Straight hush mode. Turns out he's the g leaguer and not his teammates. Tuh
@B Sox
@antidope
@hardens beard
HUSH
Fox Doucette is your source?
I need a credible, scholarly, peer reviewed article to take your argument seriously. You just cited Wikipedia on your term paper.
- Jan 2, 2014
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I meant, he ain't dunking on the entire team like that or pulling 180 layups.
But the handles and passing is still there.
- Jun 7, 2011
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They’re in if he stays at this level, which is how he started the season. He killlllled Boston a few days ago. Huge W. Would love to see him back in the playoffs. He very nearly put out Wade & Co a few years ago
- Sep 11, 2011
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Saw this on twitter today
- Apr 5, 2017
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- Jun 7, 2011
- 18,211
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Anyone see the parallels between the championship Mavs team and this Bucks team?
One all NBA/ MVP candidate guy surrounded by a great supporting cast.
Top 10 offense and defense.
Top 3 in 3 point attempt rate
Former coach of the year
If they’re actually hitting those 3s in May & June, theyll be right there.
My question with them is always going to be how many 3s are players 2-12 on that roster going to make. Middleton looked like a damn legend against Boston last year so maybe I should say players 3-12
Dallas was 39% during that run, a mark that’d lead the league most years. Shot like 45% from there during that Lakers sweep
lit up Miami too
- Jan 2, 2014
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Okay, I really need to watch more Wizard games then.
- Apr 5, 2017
- 22,188
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Unfortunately...the next time you see John Wall in a game it'll probably be the washed version
- Aug 6, 2012
- 57,871
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Valanciunas had one of the most illegal dribbles I've ever seen in the NBA
- Jan 29, 2013
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Saw this on twitter today
The lakers are better when Bron is on the floor and water is wet
- Sep 18, 2003
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I can’t wait for Devin Booker to get mentioned in a trade rumor to the Lakers so
BIG LEEMELONE
can change his avy to a picture of young Book. Maybe even post some YouTube highlights
BIG LEEMELONE
can change his avy to a picture of young Book. Maybe even post some YouTube highlights
Clyde Frog
formerly jay02
- Jan 8, 2011
- 12,617
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Giannis signing my friends painting
MVP
Supporter
- Feb 28, 2008
- 83,036
- 85,625
- Mar 24, 2001
- 44,833
- 66,536
I can’t wait for Devin Booker to get mentioned in a trade rumor to the Lakers so
Already got bron's empty stats. We good
Darren collison> Devin booker
- Apr 23, 2014
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I knew Bruno was going to absolutely cook KD, when he torched the best defender in the League the night before.
- Nov 11, 2007
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I just looked at some lineup data... this lineup Indy currently has on the floor
Cory Joseph
Tyreke
McDermott
Young
Sabonis
has been killing this season.
Cory Joseph
Tyreke
McDermott
Young
Sabonis
has been killing this season.
- Jan 2, 2014
- 5,580
- 7,812
I wouldn't be surprised if Indy knocked out the Celtics in the first round.
- Jun 24, 2013
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Beige mambaI can’t wait for Devin Booker to get mentioned in a trade rumor to the Lakers so
- Apr 5, 2017
- 22,188
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This is incredible...especially considering Tyreke Evans has been dog **** this year.
- Nov 5, 2012
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Boggers is insane this year 
I'd throw him a 3 year bag here in Dallas
I'd throw him a 3 year bag here in Dallas- Status
