Phoenix Suns: How can Devin Booker become an all-time great player?

Phoenix Suns: Devin Booker vs His Peers of Today

So let’s fast forward to Devin Booker’s peers of today, and the NBA season just completed. Who were the top shooting guards that scored and shot well, pulled rebounds, gave assists, made steals, and didn’t turn the ball over?

According to ESPN’s rankings in each of those categories, combined with the lowest average of those rankings (my metrics), the top 10 all-around shooting guards last season were…

1) James Harden (138 points)
2) Paul George  (146 points) *only 48 games
3) Bradley Beal (169 points)
4) Luka Doncic (174 points)
5) Donovan Mitchell (190 points)

I think it is fair to say that this would be a good break-point to declare that those five players are the tier of current players, now let’s take a look at the rest of the top 10 all-around shooting guards from last season.

6) Fred VanVleet (197 points)
7) Devin Booker (205 points)
8) Jaylen Brown (207 points)
9) Jrue Holiday (211 points)
10) CJ McCollum (212 points)

* Honorable Mentions:  Victor Oladipo (injuries), Klay Thompson (injuries), Buddy Hield, Evan Fournier, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

I am not alone in my thinking, if you need more than my quick snapshot of categories, you can go to the analytics encyclopedic “RAPTOR”, from the FiveThirtyEight group. To give you an idea, (higher points=better players) the analytics shows that James Harden comes in with +8.5 points on offense, and +2.0 on defense, Luka Doncic number four on my list comes in at +7.4 points on offense, and -1.1 on defense.

Devin Booker… +4.8 points on offense, -2.9 on defense. Clearly, we are onto something.

I have not been totally on board the Devin Booker bandwagon over his first four years, but he has sold me this year. He is proving to me that he belongs on a list like this, and all-around play is what I expect out of my player as an NBA fan.

Until Devin Booker starts to play defense, he will be just the best shooter in the group, which is not a bad thing. But for a team such as a Phoenix Suns, if he could make it to the next tier that’s when he actually can start becoming one of the all-time greats.