Phoenix Suns: Devin Booker is reaching the levels we thought he would

Devin Booker was given everything he could’ve asked for heading into the 2020-21 season. His Phoenix Suns had already exuded a new level of competence with an 8-0 bubble run they hoped could carry over into the new year. Offseason changes highlighted by the additions of Chris Paul and Jae Crowder further legitimated their chances of ending a decade-long playoff drought.

Booker has spent the majority of his NBA career producing some truly remarkable numbers. He is one of two players — along with James Harden — to have averaged at least 26 points, six assists, and four rebounds per game in each of the last two seasons. That was with every defense geared to stop him and few teammates to dictate otherwise.

Of course, the only time his efforts put Phoenix in a position to even sniff the playoffs was with the pandemic-driven creation of a play-in game. Though in what is still a team sport, that said less about Booker’s abilities and more about the absence of talent around him. With that problem finally remedied, the possibilities seemed endless.

Devin Booker might not be an All-Star in 2021, but the Phoenix Suns are happy to see him playing like one after a slow start.

The player with hardly any meaningful games under his belt after five seasons would soon get to put his skills to good use with more national attention than ever before. A first-time All-Star last season only via an injury replacement, Booker could put up a real fight to be named a starter.

In a year without a prohibitive favorite, could the new-look Suns possibly reach a high enough level to afford Booker a dark-horse run at the MVP trophy?

Through the first 22 games of the season, the results were mixed. Phoenix certainly looked the part of playoff participants at 13-9, which put them fourth in the Western Conference. But Booker wasn’t as big a part of that resurgence as many expected.

In the 18 games he appeared in — he missed four in late January with a hamstring injury — Booker averaged 22.8 points, 4.1 assists and 3.5 rebounds per game. Those are solid numbers in their own right but fall well short of the production Booker has had us grow accustomed to.

That the Suns still managed to match if not exceed expectations spoke volumes to the well-rounded team put in place by general manager James Jones, but nobody was fooled. For Phoenix to not only solidify a favorable playoff spot but actually make some noise upon getting there, its best player would have to play like it.

Enter these last eight games, where Booker has made a late All-Star push with the level of basketball everyone had come to expect. In just 33.6 minutes, he’s averaged 28.9 points, 4.9 assists, and 4.4 rebounds per game. Soon after the coaches submitted their reserve ballots, he needed just 17 shots in 29 minutes to put up 34 points in a 32-point blowout over the Portland Trail Blazers to give Phoenix its third straight win.

“We’ll see,” Booker said after the win when asked about his All-Star chances. “It’s just something that you never know…my main focus is getting wins for this team. It’d be an honor to make my second appearance, but I guess we’ll see tomorrow.”

Learning to function within a team concept was a difficult challenge for Booker early on. It wasn’t an issue of selfishness. After years spent dominating the basketball, he simply had to figure out how to best pick his spots and develop synergy that would allow him to play off of his teammates instead of having them serve as bystanders to a one-man show. That applied especially to the cohesion formed with a future Hall-of-Fame point guard.

The absence of that chemistry wasn’t apparent in Booker’s efficiency numbers but its presence is hard to ignore. During this stretch, Booker has shot 55.5 percent from the field and 48.7 percent from three while also draining a characteristic 88.9 percent of his free-throws.

He has long been one of the game’s most unstoppable all-around scorers but defenses could always force the ball out of his hands and face few consequences. Now, they’re unsure which price they want to pay even as Booker tries to make the choice crystal clear.

Phoenix is 7-1 over its last eight outings, but it had also won five of its previous six before this stretch, including two victories without Booker. His resurgence isn’t about how it positions the Suns back on track to maybe hunt for the postseason. The mastery of Chris Paul and a potent second unit steadied the ship in the interim.

Any team would be foolish not to chase after their ceiling and Booker, as a capable 30-point scorer, secondary playmaker and late-game finisher, will be primarily responsible for helping the Suns reach theirs.

He doesn’t likely have the season-long body of work to return to the All-Star Game this season. With bigger goals in mind, Phoenix has no issues settling for better late than never.