Devin Booker’s early-season stats for the Suns are surprisingly quiet

The Phoenix Suns are off to a solid start, but Devin Booker, who has not necessarily taken over any one game yet, is having a quiet start himself.

The Phoenix Suns are 2-2, and were four points total away from starting the season 4-0 and sitting at the top of the Western Conference.

Following a very quite opening night, and minus Deandre Ayton since that game (and presumably for the next 22), there was a general presumption that Devin Booker was going to take a large offensive leap in his running mate’s absence, akin to his offensive production of the last two seasons.

This has not happened, as he has been strangely quiet.

Although with a 30 point game against the Los Angeles Clippers (history shows that he does seem to turn his game up when he faces Kawhi Leonard), Devin Booker has had three otherwise quiet offensive games, including one downright clunker.

In his team’s opening night 29 point blowout of the Sacramento Kings, Booker was set to finish with a mild 13 points, when he finally decided to stuff the stat sheet a little bit with a quick nine points in the final four minutes; his first points of that stretch with Phoenix already holding a comfortable 18 point lead.

Two nights later, the first without Ayton, Booker shot a paltry 6-21 in 41:24, including 1-8 from beyond the arc, finishing with a thus far season-low, 18 points.

The Suns lost that game by one, and while the team had a chance in the end to pull it out despite Book’s poor shooting, one cannot help but think that had his offense  been a little bit more up to fan’s collective expectations, that his team wouldn’t have even needed to worry about late-game heroics to pull out a solid, and comfortable road victory.

Booker rebounded for the 30 points game against the Clippers on 10-20 from the field and 3-6 from beyond the arc, then scored just 21 points on 9-16 shooting (and zero assists) in the one point loss to the Utah Jazz.

Through those four games, even with the poor shooting night against the Nuggets (it is possible that the altitude played a role in that for him), Booker is currently shooting 47.3% from the field, what would  be a career-high if it carried throughout the year.

If you take out  that that Nuggets game, he is up to 54.7% (and 46.1% from 3), placing him in the range of great shooters like Stephen Curry.

However, if you also take out the Los Angeles Clippers’ game, then Booker (who is currently averaging 22.8 points), would be averaging an even more pedestrian 20.3 points per game – although either way, those averages place him at his lowest scoring output  since his second season in the league, thus far.

Of course, one must manipulate the statistics to come up with highs and lows on the early year that paint variably different pictures of the totality of his stats thus far, however, the eye-test is undeniably telling a very specific story.

For the first time in his career (or at least since his rookie season when he shared the court with Eric Bledsoe), Devin Booker is playing in a backcourt with a legitimate point guard, Ricky Rubio.

As such, Book isn’t called on to handle the ball on every possession, which has in many ways taken him out of the offense to a degree.

Phoenix Suns

Sure, he is still getting his shots (he is attempting 18.5 per game, 1.1 less per game than last season’s career-high of 19.6), and his shooting percentage is proof of just how effective playing alongside Rubio is for him.

But the eye-test is showing without a doubt that he is not in a role overall to take over games offensively like he once was.

Is this a bad thing?

Well, as mentioned before, the Phoenix Suns are 2-2, are four total points away from being 4-0, and look like a completely different team than they have looked since the days of Steve Nash.

Obviously fans want to see the team win regardless of what one player is averaging, and if winning too is at the forefront of Booker’s mind above all other individual statistical accolades, then I am sure he is happy with the direction the franchise is headed as well.

And yet one cannot help but notice that Devin Booker is not the dynamic figure in Monty Williams‘ offense that he had been under his previous three head coaches, and wonder if that level of dynamism could return (placing him statistically in the upper echelon of the Western Conference’s elite, right where he and fans would love him to be), and keep the team successful.

Through four games, the Phoenix Suns do not appear  to need Devin Booker to average close to 30 points a game for the team to win.

Had any one other player on the court made a single basket at any time during the team’s losses to Denver and Utah that they had missed in reality, then the team would be 4-0 and Devin Booker would be averaging 22.8 points per game.

Big deal.

And even with the team at 2-2, there is no real reason to believe that his low scoring has anything to do with that.

Sure, had he shot above 50% in Denver as he had in his other three games, and had the officials reviewed the clock and moved it from .4 seconds to 1.8 seconds at the end of the Utah game as should  have happened the team could be undefeated and one might be more easily able to argue that he actually has dominated a couple of games offensively.

Yet even with those two losses, there are still a ton of positives to consider, and plenty of optimism that they can be the surprise team in the league this year.

For the merely statistical fun of it, hopefully Devin Booker’s scoring average does tick up a bit to the 25-27 per game average that he has hovered around the last two seasons, and that with that number, the team wins games that they maybe otherwise would not have.

At the moment though, the Phoenix Suns are pretty loud 2-2, even while Devin Booker has been averaging a pretty quiet 22.8 points per game.

Winning as all fans want of their beloved Phoenix Suns, and Devin Booker will be at the heart of the team’s winning regardless of his scoring average.