Phoenix Suns: Zach Lowe’s Devin Booker comparison is way off

ESPN recently featured an article comparing Phoenix Suns star, Devin Booker, to Chris Paul. While they have a few overlapping moves, the two are vastly different players.

Zach Lowe of ESPN recently featured five NBA things he likes and doesn’t like, including Devin Booker showing skills like Chris Paul. While it is great to see the Phoenix Suns get some national spotlight with the worldwide leader in sports nothing, at the moment, his Chris Paul – Devin Booker comparison is way off.

Lowe’s comparison seems to stem primarily from two plays from one game, of which he featured in embedded videos.

Here is the first one:

Lowe breaks it down:

"Everything about that — Booker’s patience navigating Deandre Ayton‘s screen, the snaking path to his sweet spot, the smooth leaning release — screams Chris Paul."

Sure, I agree with that. This particular play is very Chris Paul-esque, especially the elbow jumper. But one play, a player comparison does not make.

Lowe goes on to post a similar video where, once again, Booker is patient, pump fakes, and drills another midrange jumper from the elbow. I admit it is a move I’ve seen Chris Paul use countless times.

But just because Booker can score on plays similar to the ones used by Chris Paul, doesn’t make them similar overall players. Booker has a wide variety of ways he can score. You know this; a seriously vast arsenal. The patient navigation to the elbow jumper is one of many ways he can make opposing teams look foolish.

Chris Paul can hit an open 3 and is crafty in the lane, just like Booker, but Booker can score in so many more ways, and at a better clip. The similarities end with having a relatively small overlap in shot selection.

First of all, the two don’t even play the same position. Paul is a point guard and much more of a pass-first ball-handler than Booker, who, while is extremely capable of dishing it and making plays, is always looking to score first. Even though he played some point guard the last couple of seasons out of necessity, this season showed he is much more effective off the ball at shooting guard.

And on defense, well, if Booker can ever match Paul’s caliber of defense, then just hand the Phoenix Suns the Larry O’Brien trophy.

Lowe goes on to say:

"We tend to think of Booker as a long-range marksman, but he is a prolific and quite accurate midrange shooter who can get to this shot whenever he wants. A full 45% of his attempts this season have come from the midrange."

This makes me think Lowe had the following train of thought:

“I don’t watch any Phoenix Suns games so I don’t have any firsthand context, but I know Booker is good at shooting 3s. And look at this stat! He doesn’t shoot 3s at the rate of someone like Stephen Curry, who is also prolific behind the arc. Wait, you know who else shoots less 3s and more 2s? Chris Paul!”

The reality is, Booker is often pressed so hard at the 3-point line the smart basketball move is to drive and either make a play going to the rim or pulling up from midrange. He doesn’t have the ball-handling wizardry of Stephen Curry to dance around and pull up a falling-sideways deep ball and make it look easy. Not many people do.

But, hey. I’m not going to complain. Booker and the Phoenix Suns getting some love from the national folks is great. Plus, I think we can all agree with this portion of Lowe’s analysis:

"Booker took a leap this season. He was a deserving All-Star…Booker is really good and should grow into the sort of scorer-distributor who can play a big role on a winning team."

Winning team. I like the sound of that.