What did Mat Ishbia and the Suns pay Devin Booker to do? That’s the question Suns fans need to ask themselves. Instead, everyone has gotten hung up on what they think Mat Ishbia paid Devin Booker to be.
Fan sentiment is that Devin Booker needs to be a “superstar” because he got paid “superstar money”. He needs to make All-NBA teams, he needs to make All-Star teams, he needs to lead the Suns in scoring every night, and he needs to win every close game when it comes down to the wire, because that’s
what Kobe did.
Mat Ishbia signed Devin Booker to the market-value supermax contract he had coming his way because the Suns and 29 other NBA front offices think that Devin Booker impacts winning. Mat Ishbia extended Devin Booker to build a title contender. He didn’t extend him so that Booker could win the scoring title (fingers crossed). Or make an All-NBA team (I hope, I hope, I hope). Or even play in an All-Star game (if he doesn’t, we riot). He extended Booker to build a team that can win, and win in the playoffs. The fine print didn’t specify that Booker had to be anything. Jordan Ott can use Booker however he sees fit.
An interesting conversation has come up in the Suns-related content sphere. Gil from the PHNX Suns stream posited whether or not there was “a world in which Jalen Green is the guy who’s averaging 24 plus, maybe around that 25 range.” He also asked whether there should be a “Passing of the Torch where Jalen is the guy who is maybe leading the team in scoring but Booker’s still getting go-to buckets down the stretch.” I have thoughts on that.
So did Ben Garcia from the Locked on Suns stream, who had the following to say about the idea of Booker stepping back in order for Green to grow:
“What if Jalen Green turns into a 25-point per game player and ascends past Devin Booker, and Devin Booker turns into the Big Shot Maker. That is stupid in my opinion because Jalen Green has never shot over 42% in a season.”
He went on to add, “Asking Devin Booker to take a step back, like that’s crazy. No one would ever tell a four or five-time All-Star to take a back seat to a guy who has never been an All-Star, never really contributed to winning.”
Fight. Fight. Fight. Fight.
Ben is caught up in what he thinks Devin Booker should be. It would be crazy to ask Devin Booker to take a back seat in any offense. That’s not what I think Gil meant. I think he meant the Suns would be better if Jalen Green were their leading scorer, and he’s right.
The Suns don’t need Devin Booker to be less involved in the offense; they need him to change the role he plays in the offense. Or the role he’s traditionally played. You don’t have to look any further than last year’s playoffs when Mike Brown asked Karl-Anthony Towns to take on a different role to see the proof of concept. If Jordan Ott did ask Booker to take on a different role in order to impact winning, he wouldn’t be the only coach who’s done so. Calipari at Kentucky asked Book to come off the bench. Kerr asked Book to be the glue guy to bring a collection of great talent into a cohesive team. Two championship-caliber coaches saw the value in Devin Booker’s greatest attribute behind the butter-smooth jumper. Devin Booker is an egoless (super)star who has the team-first mentality and the basketball IQ to adjust his game to suit the needs of the team.
The Suns don’t have to build the team around Devin Booker the way you have to build a team around LeBron or Luka. Teammates don’t have to be asked to fill a narrow role and sacrifice their game in order for Booker to get off his. This is important because the Suns have an optimization problem at the top of the payroll.
Jalen Green did not play as well for the Suns as he played on the Rockets. There are reasons for that. It’s the injury, it’s coming in late onto a team that had already gelled, but it’s also the role they asked Jalen Green to play. Jalen Green’s game didn’t blossom off of Booker’s gravity the way Brooks’ game did. My opinion is that’s because Jalen Green is a one, not a two. It is debatable where Jalen Green falls on the ladder of NBA ones, he hasn’t been an all-star yet, he’s certainly not a better one than Booker, but he was the leading scorer and shot-taker on a Rockets team that landed a two seed and won two play-off games. All four years on the Rockets, Jalen Green took the most shots on the team.
While Booker remains one of the more potent scorers in the league, the eye test tells that something is changing with Booker’s jumpshot. He doesn’t look as confident, he isn’t getting it off in traffic like he used to, he’s hunting fouls because he doesn’t trust it. Beyond the much-talked-about three-point shooting woes last year, Devin Booker put up his lowest field goal percentage since the 2017 season. The year before that, he also put up his lowest field goal percentage since the 2017 season. He covered up for it by putting up a career-high 8.1 free throw attempts a game. In the playoffs, the Thunder took him out of the game. I don’t care how good the Thunder were; when has there ever been a playoff series in which Devin Booker couldn’t get shots up?
Jalen Green, with all his flaws, has young legs. He can get into the lane at will. He can elevate above the crowd. He’s a three-level scorer with elite athleticism that’s tough to stop when the ball’s in his hand. At his best, he’s a score-first guy. The questionable shot selection, the limited playmaking, and the ball-stopping are all a part of his game, but the Suns need him to be aggressive.
This season’s puzzle is an optimization problem. How do you get the most out of Booker while still getting the most out of Green, Brooks, Bridges, and Gillespie? The Suns won’t win as many games as fans expect next season if they get the Jalen Green they had last season. He produced below his career averages in points and assists. Devin Booker is special with the ball in his hands, but so was CP3. CP3 didn’t have to be the leading scorer to be the best player on the floor. Neither does Devin Booker.
If the Suns need Jalen Green to be aggressive, they need Booker to be efficient. There’s hope that the addition of a fourth shot creator in Bridges will force defenses to be less aggressive in targeting Booker, but I’m not optimistic on that front. Running more plays for Booker is going to lead to more of the same from opposing defenses. More contested jumpers, more walk-up threes, more misses, fewer buckets. The Suns can run more plays through Jalen Green, and eventually, the rush-Booker-every-time-he-touches-the-ball game plan won’t make sense anymore. Devin Booker doesn’t need more shots; he needs better shots.
We all know Ishbia is a Michigan man so when I try to prognosticate on what vision he has for his Suns teams I go to the Detroit Pistons. Initially, my mind ran to the Bad Boy Pistons with Booker playing Zeke, but there was another championship Pistons team in 2004. Led by Chauncey Billups, but led in scoring by Rip Hamilton. As of the time I’m writing this, one of them is in the Naithsmith Hall of Fame, and the other isn’t. It wasn’t the leading scorer that got inducted.
Is Jalen Green the perfect fit next to Devin Booker? Maybe not, but unless something shocking happens, Jalen Green is who they have. If the Suns are serious about winning a playoff series this season, they’re going to need to get 25 points a game from Jalen Green because teams are no longer allowing Booker to go off on them. Will there be nights when Booker makes a run at a 50 spot? Of course, there will. But not in the playoffs. The Thunder showed us what’s going to happen in the playoffs. Adding Miles Bridges doesn’t change that. The rise of Jalen Green will.
Booker is one of the most adaptable superstars in NBA history. The Suns should consider what a different role would open up, not just in opportunities for his teammates, but in him finding more space to get his own shot off as well.
Is it time for Book to pass the torch and take up a different role on this team than he has on past teams? I don’t know if that’s what Ott has planned. I just know that if he asks. Book will do it.
