Phoenix Suns: 5 goals for Devin Booker in 2017-18
4. Make first All-Star appearance
Thanks to the 2014 debacle where Tony Parker somehow made the cut over Third Team All-NBA selection and Most Improved Player of the Year Goran Dragic, the Phoenix Suns have not had an All-Star since Steve Nash in 2012.
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Devin Booker is the most likely Sun to eventually end the streak, and as he enters a potential breakout season, there’s no better time than the present to establish himself as a perennial All-Star. In order to do so, he’d probably need to accomplish every other goal on this list.
So why isn’t this particular goal higher? For starters, the amount of competition in the Western Conference makes this slightly unrealistic, with Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Chris Paul, James Harden, Russell Westbrook, Damian Lillard, C.J. McCollum, Mike Conley, Andrew Wiggins, Jimmy Butler and even Lonzo Ball being potential candidates — and that’s without even mentioning the forwards.
It’s also worth noting that an All-Star selection is hardly the end-all, be-all to define a successful season. Given the amount of competition and how Phoenix’s likely lack of team success will hold him back, Booker missing out on an All-Star bid at age 21 is hardly the end of the world.
However, until he comes of age where All-NBA selections become the loftier goal, a spot in the All-Star game seems like a good starting point.