My Mind’s on Devin Booker, and Devin Booker’s on My Mind
By Adam Maynes
On this off-day, I wanted to take a few moments to share a few thoughts about Devin Booker’s impressive season as we finish up the 2016-17 regular season.
Points behind Kobe
As has been discussed in recent games, and has been covered on this very site’s twitter account – @ValleyOfTheSuns if you aren’t following us yet – Devin Booker is inching closer to becoming the fourth all-time leading scorer under the age of 21.
While category leaders LeBron James, Kevin Durant, and Carmelo Anthony are all out of reach for Booker, Kobe Bryant currently sits only 60 points ahead of the Suns star for fourth place all-time. To pass Kobe, Booker would need to average a meager 15.25 points in his final four games – far below his season scoring average. Provided he plays out the final four games of the season, this seems like all but a sure thing (even if he missed a game he’d have to only average 20 points, and if he missed two games, 30).
In his past four games (after the 70 points performance) Booker is averaging 28.5 points. Should he keep that pace up, he could potentially pass Kobe in the Oklahoma City Thunder game using the subsequent two games against Dallas and Sacramento to create a buffer between himself and future under-21 scorers.
To just put into perspective the top-3 scorers all-time under-21:
1. LeBron James – 4,649 (Booker would have to average to pass: 488.6ppg)
2. Kevin Durant – 3,495 (Booker would have to average to pass: 200.1ppg)
3. Carmelo Anthony – 3,283 (Booker would have to average to pass: 147.1ppg)
There is also a chance that the Suns will have one, maybe two games before Booker’s 21st birthday on October 30 to start next season, although even two extra games wouldn’t be enough to catch anyone in the top-3.