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When Kevin Durant is a member of your team’s franchise, as long as he plays enough games, your squad will have at least one all-star. As we saw last year, Devin Booker isn’t a shoo-in. He’s the most likely Sun to be named an All-Star this year.
With a new round of NBA All-Star fan voting coming in, it looks like if Booker will get back to the All-Star Game after missing it last season, he will have to do so as a reserve selection. He’s got the 17th-most votes among all Western Conference players. 50% of the fan vote accounts for who the All-Star Starters will be.
The NBA All-Star format is once again different this year. As always, 24 players will be selected, but the composition of the selections will be different than years past. There will be 16 American players selected and eight international players. If the numbers don’t add up to that amount, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver will add members to the group that hasn’t met the requirements.
Booker, 29, is averaging at least 25 points per game for his eighth straight season. Kevin Durant and Giannis Antetokounmpo are the only active players who have done that for longer. He remains one of the league’s top scorers, but his efficiency is down. His 29.8% shooting percentage from three is the lowest of his career by nearly three percentage points, and his 46.3% shooting from the field is his second-lowest shooting percentage since the 2017-2018 season.
Playing in all but three games this year, Booker has been durable and is leading the Suns in points, assists, and free throws per game. Coming into the year, it was expected that Booker was likely to have a heavy minute load, but instead, he’s averaging the fewest minutes per game since the 2020-2021 campaign, a testament to the team being less dependent on him than anticipated.
Last year, while Booker had the counting numbers to be an All-Star, the Phoenix Suns were disappointing the masses. This season, Phoenix has surprised many. They currently sit six games above .500 and are firmly in the seventh spot in the Western Conference. As of right now, the Suns have minus odds to make the playoffs on FanDuel, something they didn’t have to start the year.
Should Booker be an All-Star this season? Why or why not? If yes, should he be a starter or a reserve?
