3 ways the Phoenix Suns have adapted without Devin Booker
By Luke Duffy
1. More 3-pointers taken
A strange quirk has arisen for the Suns this season, in that they added players like Grayson Allen and Royce O'Neale to hit a lot of shots from deep because of all of the space their star players afford those guys. Allen leads the league in 3-point shooting percentage, while O'Neale has already had a couple of occasions where he has gotten hot.
Yet despite this - and the fact Durant is also shooting over 40 percent from deep so far this campaign - the Suns rank a puzzling 26th in shots taken from beyond the arc per game, at 31.8. For context, the surging Boston Celtics take 42.3 a night. If the Suns have such good shooters in O'Neale, Gordon and especially Allen, why are they not taking more shots?
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The answer is simple in that Booker, Durant and Beal take most of the shots on this team on a nightly basis. Nurkic also gets his inside as well. But with Booker now out of the picture, suddenly the role players are getting a few more looks than before, and the results in a small sample size have been interesting.
In the two games Booker has missed, the Suns have gone above league average (13th, 36.5) in 3-pointers taken, and are eighth in makes in that time at 39.7 percent. Coach Vogel would rather have Booker take those shots any day, such is his amazing ability, but this has been a nice development and something to watch come the postseason. They have the shooters, and they're shooting more.