Devin Booker is a superstar in the NBA. Superstars are often required to carry their teams when the non-superstar players struggle. Unfortunately, Devin Booker has to carry this Suns team every night, every minute he's on the floor, if the Suns want any chance to stay competitive. That's an unfair ask, even for one of the most talented players in basketball.
In short; without a superhuman effort from Book every night, this team doesn't stand a chance. It's a harsh truth that Booker is learning firsthand, and Tuesday's game against the Warriors perfectly demonstrated the bleakness of the situation. Booker scored 38 points. Want to know how many of those points were assisted? Nine. He scored 29 points by himself, either on unassisted buckets or from the free throw line.
That's not sustainable for one man — and it also wasn't even enough last night! The Suns lost by double-figures to the Warriors (one of the best teams in basketball, to be fair) and Book's dazzling game was the sole reason the score appeared close.
Devin Booker undoubtedly understood that his responsibilities would be astronomical for the Suns this year. This isn't so dissimilar from the first many years of his career, when he ascended to superstar status and was the sole bright spot on an otherwise burned out Suns squad. But familiarity isn't always a positive.
Suns are barely an NBA team when Devin Booker is not on the floor
When Devin Booker is on the court, the Phoenix Suns are competitive. They have a plus-minus per 100 possessions of plus-3.1. When Devin Booker is off the court, that number drops to minus-19.5, for a difference of 22.6 points per 100 possessions. That's near the top of the league, of course. Whether you view that as an insanely impressive Book stat or an incredibly sad Phoenix Suns stat is up to you.
That difference exists in large part because Booker has to be both the primary scorer and the primary playmaker, too. The Suns don't have any elite passers, so Booker is forced to create the offense and score every time. He starts the offense and is expected to finish it, too. And despite Booker making so many buckets look easy, he has to work for way more buckets than he should.
Defenses aren't afraid of anyone else on this team, so when Booker has the ball, all five opponents are sharply focused on him. When he doesn't have the ball, the attention is still on him, and making sure he doesn't spring free for an open catch-and-shoot opportunity.
Booker's always been an underrated passer, but when there are no offensive weapons around him to strike fear into a defense, it's a better option to go 1-on-5 and hope for the best. That's a wild sentence to write.
Last night, Devin Booker was a plus-8 in 39 minutes played. The Suns lost by 11. I'm not a math whiz, but that means the Suns were outscored by 19 points in the 9 minutes that Booker was not on the floor.
Bad!