Phoenix Suns: 5 takeaways from 2017-18 NBA season

1. Devin Booker a legitimate star

This may elicit an eye roll from anyone who avoided the Suns like the NBA League Pass plague they were this year, but yes: Devin Booker is a legitimate NBA superstar and the centerpiece of the franchise moving forward.

While NBA Twitter spends its days thinking of which insultingly mediocre player it wants to compare to Booker, the 21-year-old phenom continues to craft his game in new and exciting ways that will manifest for everyone outside of Phoenix once he actually has real NBA talent around him.

This is not a case of a player putting up good numbers on a bad team because someone has to. What Booker is doing at age 21 is unique, and becomes even more special when you consider for most of the season, he was starting alongside a second-string point guard in Tyler Ulis; a wing who can’t spread the floor or serve as a lockdown defender in T.J. Warren; an entirely underwhelming power forward in either Marquese Chriss or Dragan Bender; and a 35-year-old Tyson Chandler.

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NBA.com’s on/off-court numbers will tell you the Suns actually posted a slightly better Net Rating with him off the floor, but don’t be fooled; those numbers are skewed not only by garbage time, but also by the fact that Phoenix could rarely afford to take him off the floor. Of course his on-court rating suffered when he was playing 35-40 minutes a night with such underwhelming teammates.

Basketball is a team game, and Devin Booker’s stock as a scorer, leader and NBA star will ultimately boil down to him being able to lead the Suns back to prominence. That day will come in time, but for now, examining his numbers and the eye test — where watching more than five minutes of a Suns game usually helps — reveals him as the real deal.

For starters, Booker just averaged 24.9 points, 4.7 assists and 4.5 rebounds per game this season while shooting 43.2 percent from the floor and 38.3 percent from 3-point range — all career highs. He led the team in scoring and assists, and his 3-point percentage was second to only sharpshooter Troy Daniels. Not bad for a 21-year-old facing double-teams every night with very few offensive threats to help alleviate the pressure.

Per NBA.com, Devin Booker was one of only 10 players this season to average at least 24 points, 4.5 assists and 4.5 rebounds per game. The other nine? James Harden, LeBron James, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Damian Lillard, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and DeMarcus Cousins.

Though his defense still needs drastic improvement, the physical toll it took to be Phoenix’s everything on offense — including stretches where he served as the team’s point guard because the need was so dire — understandably left him taking plays off on the other end.

The Suns can’t complain much considering the expert manipulation of pick-and-roll defenses he displayed this year. The crafty dribbling, the coaxing of the double-team to spring and the picture perfect pass? That’s basketball I.Q. and ability well beyond his years.

There’s the fact that the Suns went 4-24 without Booker to consider, compared to their 17-37 record with him in the lineup.

You might also recall he was ranked fourth in scoring in NBA history among players before reaching their 21st birthday. Maybe becoming the third-youngest player to reach 4,000 career points (behind only LeBron and KD) rings a bell.

Or perhaps you could just sit back and soak in these numbers for the healthiest portion of his season, before a hand injury basically ended his breakout year:

Booker may not have hit the 70-point threshold again in 2017-18, but he had plenty of memorable games that made it more bearable — and dare we say, exciting — to tune in to Suns basketball.

His 46-point eruption against the Philadelphia 76ers, one of the best defensive teams in the league and a current top-three team in the East, was the peak of his cutthroat scoring ability this season.

He buried dagger after dagger to down the Sixers in a rare win for Phoenix, driving past Joel Embiid double-teams with ease and making Robert Covington look like a thoroughly mediocre defender.

That performance also put him in some pretty elite company, which Devin Booker is probably getting used to by this point:

There was his 34-6-6 line on the road against the Portland Trail Blazers in November that proved this season was going to boast a more well-rounded Devin Booker.

There was his 32-point, seven-rebound, four-assist effort the very next game that made him the first Sun since Amar’e Stoudemire in 2007 to put up at least 30 points and six rebounds in back-to-back games, per NBA.com/stats.

There was a 35-9-6 night against the Minnesota Timberwolves in yet another Suns win over a playoff team, where Booker outplayed Jimmy Butler on both ends of the floor. Fun fact? Those are just from the first month of the season, leaving out multiple 40- and 30-point performances from November on.

From clutch shots to force overtime to surprising assaults on the rim, the only area Devin Booker didn’t improve in his third season was in the win column.

With the Suns owning the best odds at the No. 1 pick in the draft pick, considerable cap space to work with and multiple trade assets stockpiled, the onus is on general manager Ryan McDonough to give Booker more weapons to work with on both ends of the floor so he can start winning.

Next: 2017-18 Week 26 NBA Power Rankings

If that happens, the time for excuses will run out quickly, especially for a franchise starving for a return to the playoffs. However, you can be guaranteed that based on the immense leap he made in Year 3, Devin Booker is on the verge of leading this weary franchise and its fanbase back to prominence. If he could do all this without help and defenses keying in on his every move, just imagine what he’ll do with another year under his belt and a legitimate point guard feeding him.