Phoenix Suns: 5 Areas For Improvement

1. Get Devin Booker Better Looks

Averaging a team-leading 19.1 points per game, Devin Booker’s role as this team’s offensive cornerstone was never in doubt. He’s the future of the franchise and at just 20 years old, what he’s accomplished is already in rarified air.

However, his 41.5 percent shooting from the field and 34.1 percent shooting from three-point range have left much to be desired, prompting early talk of the dreaded sophomore slump. It’s way too premature to be jumping to those conclusions though, especially given what we’ve seen from Booker so far.

There was his then career-high 38 points in a win over the New Orleans Pelicans, including the game-tying step-back jumper to force overtime. Then there was his career-high 39-point performance the following game in Los Angeles. He’s already reached the 30-point threshold four times in 19 games this season, putting him in some pretty elite company:

That being said, between Booker’s work-in-progress defense, his low assist numbers and his underwhelming shooting percentages, is it fair to wonder if we jumped aboard the hype train a little too soon?

Pump the brakes on that notion. Though Booker’s shooting numbers aren’t where we thought they’d be, since battling through that early turf toe injury, Booker is averaging 20.2 points per game on more respectable .421/.366/.869 shooting splits.

Though he’s only averaging 2.6 assists to 2.4 turnovers per game, that’s a byproduct of playing on a crappy team that averages very few assists within an offense that doesn’t really run plays. His basketball IQ, willingness to move the ball and ability to operate out of the pick-and-roll while making the smart pass shouldn’t be overlooked.

Booker has also worked harder on defense, and as The Arizona Republic’s Paul Coro pointed out, the 20-year-old phenom’s effort is improving on that end of the floor. Keep in mind, the kid isn’t even able to legally purchase alcohol yet.

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One thing that might help turn around the early perception that Booker is heading for a sophomore slump would be Watson designing more plays for him, especially in catch-and-shoot scenarios like Golden State does for Klay Thompson.

Booker and Thompson are very different players, but Booker could be a similarly effective spot-up shooter if the Suns would run more sets to free him up, as they tried to do a few times against the Atlanta Hawks Wednesday.

According to NBA.com, 80 percent of Booker’s three-point field goals have been assisted. Only Bledsoe and Knight have a lower percentage among Suns players who actually take threes. Compare that to a sharpshooter like Thompson, whose three-pointers have a 100 percent assist rate, and it starts to become clear Phoenix needs to do more to try and free up their star scorer.

Not enough evidence for you yet? Just take a look at how Thompson and Booker compare on catch-and-shoot opportunities:

• Thompson Catch and Shoot Looks:  4.0-9.5 FG per game, 41.7 FG%, 55.6 eFG%, 2.6-7.0 3P per game, 37.9 3P%, 41.3% FREQ
• Booker Catch and Shoot Looks:  1.5-4.4 FG per game, 33.8 FG%, 47.5 eFG%; 1.2-3.4 3P per game, 37.1 3P%, 20.1% FREQ

In addition to getting more than double the amount of catch-and-shoot looks that Booker gets, catch-and-shoot threes comprise 41.3 percent of Thompson’s shot selection, compared to just 20.1 percent for Booker.

The Suns are hoping that Booker will develop the other areas of his game the way that Thompson struggled to do through his first few seasons in the league, so he doesn’t need to be an exclusive catch-and-shoot threat the way Thompson was early in his career.

That being said, the kid is 20 years old. Watson having Booker go into iso-mode 18.5 percent of the time — ranking him 11th among all players in the NBA — is not setting him up for success, even if he is shooting 47.8 percent on such plays and ranks in the 75th percentile.

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Booker has shown elements of players whose film he studies like Kobe Bryant, Klay Thompson and Ray Allen, so his skillfulness in iso-sets and post-ups on the block is promising. But since he’s still so young, maybe freeing him up for easier catch-and-shoot opportunities would be better than just feeding him the rock and letting him go to work one-on-one so often?