Devin Booker
Grade: A
Stats: 26.1 points, 6.6 assists, 4.2 rebounds per game
At this point, I am running out of ways to praise Devin Booker. The man has been everything the Phoenix Suns needed him to be and it finally paid off this season when the basketball gods intervened and awarded him his first-ever All-Star selection.
When Ricky Rubio came in, Booker knew he wasn’t going to have the ball in his hands as much, and yet, he still poured out incredible scoring and assists numbers. We’ve been fortunate enough to watch a star evolve as he keeps finding new ways to score, and more consistently make the smart basketball play.
The only reason I’m not giving him an A+ is that, in order to reach that next level of stardom, he needs to get to make a jump in defensive consistency.
There is a misnomer out there that he is bad at defense. I find this notion about as logical as not including him in the All-Star game to begin with. People can think this, but it’s still wrong.
Truthfully, he’s fine on defense but just fine. He’ll never be Mikal Bridges or Jevon Carter, but he is completely adequate on defense for this position. The problem is he has too many breakdowns were he gets caught ball-watching. Once he evolves this part of this game (and the team starts winning more so people actually see him play) his All-Star game appearance will NOT be like his time at Kentucky: one-and-done.