Phoenix Suns: Devin Booker, The Rookie Everyone’s Overlooking

Defense

For 99 percent of NBA rookies, defense is the end of the floor that requires the most adjustment. Devin Booker is still learning on that end of the floor, but the Suns have been surprisingly comfortable with him taking his licks and learning from those experiences early on.

In Phoenix’s home matchup with the Bulls on Nov. 18, Jimmy Butler helped Chicago pull away late in the fourth, capitalizing on two straight post-ups against Booker by getting him to bite on pump fakes. The first time he got to the line and and one the second, he converted a key three-point play.

But in the Suns’ recent road victory against the Bulls, Hornacek had Booker on the floor again in crunch-time minutes and this time, the rookie didn’t fall for those same pump fakes.

“When you come in this league and you’re playing against all these veteran guys that know all the tricks, you have to play against them once or twice or even three or four times to really get a feel of what they’re going to do,” Hornacek said. “Devin’s gonna pick that up quickly.”

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Booker still needs to get stronger and like the rest of the Suns’ guards, he’s been prone to backdoor cuts and losing his man off the ball. Help-side defense is not easy to master for any NBA player, let alone a rookie who’s just starting to get some real run.

However, Booker’s baby face shouldn’t overshadow the fact that at 6’6″, he has the size to play the 3-spot in small-ball lineups. With Tyson Chandler injured and Keef benched as his future in Phoenix continuously grows bleaker, Hornacek has gone to small-ball lineups featuring Mirza Teletovic and Jon Leuer more often.

P.J. Tucker sometimes cracks that rotation, but Booker has recently overtaken T.J. Warren as one of the first youngsters off the bench. In those small-ball lineups, his potential as a guy who can hold his own defensively against small forwards makes him a tremendous asset.

After a narrow home win against the Orlando Magic where Booker was inserted in crunch-time and helped the Suns close out the game with a defensive stop, Hornacek was more than comfortable with his decision to play a rookie in the clutch, just as he was in the comeback win against the Bulls.

“Yeah, we feel confident with him out there, especially when we’re switching,” Hornacek said. “Some guys, you’re a little leery of when you’re telling everybody to switch cuz all of a sudden they’re locked into their guy and they’ll go with him and leave somebody wide open, but he was great that last play.”

The Suns are 2.4 points per 100 possessions better defensively with Booker on the bench, but for the league’s 20th ranked defense, the signs of promise far outweigh the raw numbers for such an offensively inclined team.

Next: The Future