Phoenix Suns: 5 Adjustments That Need To Be Made
4. Make Devin Booker A Playmaker
In Phoenix’s loss to Houston Wednesday night, Devin Booker tied a season-high seven assists, accounting for more than one-third of the team’s assists. At 3.1 assists per game, Booker averages the second-most dimes of anyone on the Suns’ roster.
When HoopsHabit asked if he had considered empowering Booker as a playmaker by putting the ball in his hands more often, Watson responded, “No, we have point guards. He’ll get enough action with the ball in his hands. You let Booker play any position, he’ll try and play the 5 too.”
To be fair, Watson is correct. The Suns do have three point guards already between Eric Bledsoe, Brandon Knight and rookie Tyler Ulis…and yet, Phoenix ranks dead last in the association in assists per game, assist percentage and assist-to-turnover ratio.
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For a team that plays at the league’s second-fastest pace and makes the ninth most passes per game, that lack of distribution is telling about the kind of point guards Bledsoe and Knight are. With Ulis tethered to the bench, there have been far too many games where Booker looks like the smartest passer on the floor.
Compared to score-first point guards like Bledsoe and Knight, that’s not saying much. But with the Suns ranking 22nd in offensive rating, it’s clear this current approach isn’t working. Instituting an actual offense would be a start, but giving Booker more to do than go one-on-one and take contested jumper after contested jumper might help fix this team’s broken system.
The irony is that before the Houston game, Watson praised the Rockets’ decision to empower James Harden as their full-time point guard, despite his traditional position being the shooting guard spot.
“[Harden] kind of embraced playing the point guard position,” Watson said. “He’s always had the ball for most of the game, but now it’s defined.”
No one’s suggesting that at age 20, Booker is displaying Harden-esque court vision or playmaking ability. After all, head coach Mike D’Antoni went as far as saying the Beard was one of the greatest pick-and-roll players ever, and that’s coming from a guy who coached Steve Nash and Amar’e Stoudemire for half a decade.
But what’s the harm in finding out what Booker can do as a playmaker since he’s shown such promise as a ball handler in pick-and-roll situations? For an 8-21 team that ranks dead last in almost every assist category and sits at the bottom of the Western Conference standings, a little experimentation is worth a shot.