Conclusion
Taking Booker would be a solid step towards retuning this offense to its 2013-14 heights. This past season, Phoenix’s offense appeared perfectly healthy in base statistics like points per game, yet more sophisticated measures suggested a mediocre unit getting by on sheer volume.
The Suns have a lot of players who try to create their own offense, but not many who are good at it. That was enough to get by with Goran Dragic and Isaiah Thomas (two of the best finishers in the league), but without them it led to bouts of inconsistency and ugly play
Booker represents a different direction, a highly efficient scorer who doesn’t need the ball for a long time to have success. It’s not fun to suggest that all NBA teams play the same way, but in a year when all four conference finalists were among the seven best three-point shooting teams in the league, Booker’s value is abundantly clear.
His age works against him if the Suns expect him to contribute right away, but in essentially redshirting their last four first round draft picks (at least for the first half of the year), this team has shown it’s willing to wait.
McDonough and the rest of the Suns brain trust shouldn’t limit themselves to taking the best player available when they can take a guy possessing the league’s most important skill. That being said, Booker’s relatively one-dimensional on offense right now with 89 percent of his shot attempts last year coming on jumpers, according to Draft Express.
If Phoenix feels Booker can develop into an elite gunner and at least be competent in the other facets of his game (a la J.J. Reddick), he’s definitely in the conversation for the Suns’ first pick.
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