Phoenix Suns: 5 early signs Devin Booker is making the leap

3. Pick-and-roll

On a related note, Devin Booker’s emerging aptitude in the pick-and-roll is worth monitoring. Rather than give him the ball and clear out like in the past, Book is getting his feet wet using on-ball screens to either free himself up or create easy looks for teammates on the roll.

So far this season, Booker has been the ball-handler in 48 pick-and-roll possessions, which is the 17th-highest mark in the association. Among the 35 players with at least 40 such possessions, Booker ranks 27th in points per possession (0.71).

For reference, here’s how a few notable names on that list compare:

• James Harden: 0.81 PPP
• Russell Westbrook: 0.81 PPP
• Ben Simmons: 0.80 PPP
• Ricky Rubio: 0.79 PPP
• John Wall: 0.72 PPP
• Mike James: 0.70 PPP

Booker also ranks 21st among those players in field goal percentage (40 percent) on shot in pick-and-roll possessions — higher than Harden, Lillard, Wall, Kyrie Irving and Jrue Holiday.

There’s still a lot of work to be done in this area, since Booker also has the third-highest turnover frequency (25 percent) among those 35 players, but for a 21-year-old to be showing this kind of proficiency in the pick-and-roll is a great sign for the future.

He’s already developing a great rapport with Marquese Chriss, who quietly slips the screen here against the Utah Jazz for an easy alley-oop:

Chriss and Tyson Chandler aren’t Booker’s only targets out of the pick-and-roll, however.

It hasn’t been a common play call, but this kind of pick-and-pop with Dragan Bender should have Suns fans salivating about the future, especially when their 19-year-old stretch-4 can knock this shot down with regularity:

It’s not just passing out of the pick-and-roll that shows promise though. Slowly but surely, Booker is learning how to expertly weave his way through the lane off a screen, probing the defense for either a pull-up 3-pointer, a look from the mid-range where he’s the most confident, or a clear path to the lane.

Booker is already a pro when it comes to keeping defenders on his hip as they try to get around the screen, putting them in his own personal torture chamber of having to choose between letting him shoot or being drawn into a foul if he feels them invading his personal space.

Just look at how Joe Ingles is at his mercy following a strong screen from Alex Len, leading to the uncontested pull-up from the elbow:

Thanks to the threat of his 3-point shot, that hesitation dribble we mentioned earlier becomes a powerful weapon against defenders, especially on screens further away from the basket.

Watch as Booker’s slight pause with his dribble freezes a recovering Rodney Hood — who Chandler doesn’t even make contact with on the screen — before he explodes through the open gap for an uncontested layup:

Booker doesn’t even necessarily need a bone-chilling screen to free himself up; just the threat of that pick gives him enough time to put the defender on his hip as he learns to take advantage of those momentary lapses where his man feels it coming.

In a tight game against the Kings, Booker freed himself up for a clutch 3-pointer from the top of the key simply by bobbing toward a screen from Chriss on his left, catching George Hill leaning in that direction and then bursting toward the open space for the pull-up dagger:

In nother play against the Lakers, Book weaves his way back to the middle of the court coming off a Chandler pick, uses the hesitation dribble to immobilize the recovering defender, then draws in Chandler’s man — Larry Nance Jr. — with his drive before throwing it up for the wide open lob.

The data doesn’t suggest that Devin Booker is an elite pick-and-roll ball-handler just yet, but give it time. This kind of master manipulation of both his own defender and the held defender off the screen is just uncanny for a 21-year-old, let alone one who’s not a traditional point guard: