Phoenix Suns: What’s behind Devin Booker’s slow start?

The state of the roster

For starters, the Suns did him no favors by failing to add a starting-caliber point guard. Isaiah Canaan is doing his best, and De’Anthony Melton and Elie Okobo have both shown brief flashes, but at the end of the day, those three are a backup point guards (at best), with two of them being second round rookies.

This has forced head coach Igor Kokoskov to utilize Booker as the team’s primary playmaker for significant stretches — even with Canaan is on the floor.

https://twitter.com/Suns/status/1063996479839264768

Booker is averaging a career-high 7.3 assists per game, but even if he is the team’s best playmaker, and even if it will make him a more dangerous weapon when the Suns finally land a starting-caliber point guard, this strategy comes with a high turnover rate (igniting opponent fast breaks against one the league’s worst transition defenses) and impacts his ability to function as Phoenix’s go-to scorer.

Point Book is a tenable solution in small stretches or for closing out games, but putting the ball in his hands allows opposing defenses to suffocate the Suns’ offense at its source. Opponents are putting their best defenders on Booker and sending constant double-teams to get the ball out of his hands, forcing other players to make them pay.

That was the case in Saturday’s game against the Oklahoma City Thunder, when he not only had to worry about Paul George, but also the different looks Billy Donovan threw at the Suns star.

"“They’re gonna be all over Book,” Kokoskov said before the game. “Our mindset should be, ‘Please trap us’ because somebody’s open and we can move the ball. Book is absolutely willing to make the right decisions. We saw that in the previous game, he can score but he can playmake for us.”"

That may be true, but grind of serving as a team’s primary scorer and playmaker without much help around him is also a tiring process, and one that doesn’t put him in a position to maximize his talents.

Over the last two games, Booker has set and then tied his career-high in assists with 12, focusing on facilitating as defenses hone their game plans on forcing the ball out of his hands. It’s the first time in his career that he’s notched back-to-back double-doubles.

"“Just [paying] more attention when I have the ball in my hands to the other team,” Booker said of his playmaking. “So just making the right play, I try to do that every time I’m out there.”"

The high assist numbers are great, but he’s also scored just 29 points on 30 shots in the same two-game span. Booker is also shooting below 40 percent from the field and below 30 percent from 3-point range in the month of November.

"“They’re trying to take away your main weapon, which is scoring, and then as a scorer you’re trying to be a little bit stubborn — in a good way — and try to prove that you can still handle that aggressiveness,” Kokoskov said."

That pass-heavy style may have flown in a 20-point win over the San Antonio Spurs in which everything went right for the Suns from the opening jump, but it didn’t cut it against the Thunder’s second-ranked defense and it certainly won’t be enough moving forward, given the lack of scoring around him.

Former general manager Ryan McDonough emphasized over the summer that the plan was to make life easier for Devin Booker. He added shooting and veteran leadership, but since he was unable to supply Phoenix with a playmaking, defensively oriented point guard, McD failed in that task.

There were many reasons for firing him as GM, but that was the final straw (read: bale of hay) that broke the camel’s back.

T.J. Warren has had a great start to the season offensively, and is even canning 46.3 percent of his triples, but aside from him, Booker’s best member of the supporting cast is a rookie — either the double-double machine/defensively impaired Deandre Ayton, or Mikal Bridges, who’s earned a grand total of two starts in his NBA career thus far.

That’s not making Devin Booker’s life easier, and neither is the team’s 34.2 percent shooting from 3-point range — an area that was supposedly addressed over the summer. Trevor Ariza (34.2 percent) and Ryan Anderson (22.6 percent) are the most egregious offenders, and it’s part of the reason their roles on this team have been called into question a month into the season.