MVP – Devin Booker
Devin Booker is having the best season of his career, and it’s not even close.
He is shooting 50.8% from the field: a career-high.
He has raised his 3-point shooting percentage to 35.5% over the 32.6% he shot last year.
He is shooting 91.5% from the charity stripe: a career-high.
He is averaging 6.4 assists per game: second best of his career.
He is averaging 26.5 points per game: .1 off of his career-high last season, and just .6 off of the franchise-high.
Phoenix Suns
He set the franchise-record with seven consecutive games of 30 points or more (and averaged 6.9 assists while doing it.
His DRtg is at 113: while in and of itself not good, it is still the second-best of his career.
His ORtg is 116: the absolute best of his career.
His Win Share is already 4.4 this season: .9 above last season’s career-high, and he still has 40 more games to go.
The team has 18 wins, and projects to pass the best the franchise has done in his career with 24 wins (2016-17) sometime in late February or early March – unless the trade deadline brings them the kick in talent they need and they start winning at a greater clip.
All of this while – like his sideline leader, Monty Williams – he has kept his head down, he has not complained publicly, he works harder than he has ever worked before, and he waits patiently for the victories to come.
There is no one close to an MVP on this roster than Devin Booker, and regardless of how this season turns out, it will be his award at the end of the season as well.
Let us all hope that the second half of the season is better than the first, and that whatever comes of the trade deadline is purely positive, and nothing negative.