Phoenix Suns: Is Gary Harris better than Devin Booker?
By Luke Swiatek
Age and contract
This is the final slide before the conclusion and we’re admittedly scraping the bottom of the barrel in terms of meaningful differences we can find. Again though, everything must be taken into consideration.
Age is an interesting difference between the two players. Devin Booker is still 21 and is exactly two months older than his Phoenix Suns teammate, rookie Mikal Bridges. Conversely, Gary Harris is 24, and is a full year and two days older than Aaron Gordon.
Now, being older or younger doesn’t make a player better or worse necessarily. Keep in mind though that SI’s list was for the 2018-19 season, meaning they slightly projected the players forward.
With respect to that idea of projection, it makes sense to give Devin Booker a slight nudge upward here because of his youth. Players may be at the peak of their skill in their late 20s, but their rate of change of skill is greatest earlier in their career.
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Put a simpler way, the difference between 21 and 22 years is generally larger than that between 24 and 25. On average, players would be expected to improve more at the age Devin Booker is at than the age that Gary Harris is at. If the two players were equally skilled in the 2017-18 season, it would be expected that Booker would be better in 2019.
The players’ respective contracts do not determine their skill levels at all (no one thinks Joakim Noah is a top ten center in the NBA even if he’s paid like one). However, the inverse is generally true; a player’s skill level is a big determinant of what contract they get.
Gary Harris signed a four-year, $84 million contract extension in 2017 to stay with the Nuggets. A year later, the Phoenix Suns made sure Devin Booker signed a max deal for five years, $158 million.
Now, simply saying that Booker must necessarily be better because he makes more is definitely incorrect. It’s comparing apples to oranges — he signed his deal in a different offseason, with a different team and a different front office.
Harris also signed his before he had the best season of his career last year, too.
Still, it’s at least something worth noting.
Age and contract edge: Slightly Devin Booker