Phoenix Suns: Is Gary Harris better than Devin Booker?
By Luke Swiatek
Perimeter defense
Perimeter defense is really the focus here, as it is for every guard or wing in the league. However, trying to assess a player’s defense solely on statistics is a Herculean task.
There is one counting statistic we can use: steals. Gary Harris laps Devin Booker in this regard, collecting 1.8 per game to the Phoenix Suns guard’s 0.9.
If we want to look deeper than just steals (and we do), we have to turn to advanced stats. However, some advanced stats can be notoriously noisy, especially defensive ones.
Offensive and Defensive Ratings are essentially useless, because they fail to factor out the quality of the team.
Case in point: at one point last year, J.J. Redick was 10th in defensive rating throughout the league, but anyone who watched the Philadelphia 76ers (or even Redick anywhere else) could tell you that Redick isn’t even an average defender, let alone a top-10 defender.
Defensive Win Shares and Defensive Box Plus-Minus (DBPM) suffer from similar issues. According to DBPM, both players were negatives on defense, with Harris being the better of the two (-1.1 to -2.5). However, fans of Harris will correctly claim that he’s easily a net positive on defense.
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Value Above Replacement Player is a similarly laughable stat. It grades Gary Harris as a 4.2, which is fine, but it claims Booker is only an 0.4.
He may have defensive issues, but the Suns would absolutely not have been barely worse last year without Booker — they might not have won any games!
Even if these stats are flawed, they do point to the conclusion that Harris is clearly the better two-way player. That’s not a particular surprise, because it’s not like Booker is known for locking people down.
He is a bit more versatile and can defend more positions, but that’s using the definition of “guard” pretty liberally.
As of now, the eye test is still probably most important for evaluating defense, and the eye test says Harris is better. Harris is capable of guarding either guard slot well, and can even take the occasional small forward.
Meanwhile, Booker is a turnstile. Maybe he’ll be better after developing over the summer or with better personnel around him and a greater incentive to compete on the Phoenix Suns, but those things cannot be assumed.
As of now, Harris is light years ahead of Booker on the less glamorous end.
Perimeter defense edge: Heavily Gary Harris