The 4 most scrutinized players in the NBA right now

4. Devin Booker

Imagine dropping 70 points on the Boston Celtics, to further highlight your credentials as a scoring machine, and actually have that be used against you by a number of fans. For Devin Booker of the Phoenix Suns, this is, unfortunately, his reality. Despite being still only 23, and a first-time All-Star this season, the criticism of his game only seems to increase.

Yet what else is the guy supposed to do? The Suns have been a franchise that have failed since the end of the Steve Nash era to get any sort of consistency going while also whiffing on plenty of draft picks as well. This is the franchise that hired Luka Doncic’s Slovenian national team coach, only to pick Deandre Ayton with the first overall pick instead.

This isn’t about Ayton, who is growing into a useful player, but the simple fact is Booker has little help and plays in the tough Western Conference. He’s averaged over 26 points per game for the past two seasons, both because of what a good scorer he is but also out of necessity. Who else is going to get you those points? An old, but still useful, Jamal Crawford? Josh Jackson before he was jettisoned?

So instead Booker gets labeled with trying to play hero ball too much or channel an inner “Mamba Mentality” that sometimes looks like he’s forcing it. But you know what? He is forcing it, and you would be too if you were as accomplished as he is offensively, yet continue to lose games and miss out on the playoffs despite having the game that warrants being there.

Booker doesn’t always help himself with some of his shot selection or perhaps thinking he’s better than he is, but the “empty stats” he’s been putting up for a long time now would look a lot fuller if anybody else was there to do some heavy lifting. He has come to personify all that is wrong with the Suns right now, when it goes way beyond Booker alone.