Suns and their young core are a problem
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (BVM) – Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green began his week in the hole for $50,000 after comments he made about Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker on TNT’s Inside the NBA.
Appearing on the show as a guest analyst, Green made it clear on Saturday night that the Suns’ young star should take his talents elsewhere.
“Get my man out of Phoenix,” Green said of Booker. “It’s not good for him, it’s not good for his career. I need my man to go somewhere where he can play great basketball all the time and win, because he’s that type of player.”
https://twitter.com/TheNBACentral/status/1291868024757194752
Those comments were met the next morning with a $50,000 fine for tampering from the NBA. Although Green’s comments might have put a small dent in his pocket, there are many fans who believe the three-time champion was simply telling the truth. After all, Phoenix has gone 87-241 in Booker’s first four seasons as a pro and is annually at the bottom of the Western Conference.
But since an unprecedented restart in a Disney World bubble, the Suns look to be one of the most promising, young teams in the league and Booker appears to be exactly where he should be.
Phoenix entered the bubble as an afterthought and schedule-stuffer, thought of in the same boat as the Washington Wizards or Sacramento Kings. Much of the talk surrounding the coveted and up-for-grabs No. 8 seed in the Western Conference pre-restart involved the Memphis Grizzlies, New Orleans Pelicans and Portland Trailblazers, and while the Blazers appear to be in the driver’s seat, the Suns are the Cinderella of the bubble.
With their 13-point win over the Philadelphia 76ers on Tuesday, the Suns improved to a perfect 7-0 in the bubble and have inched closer to a postseason play-in tournament.
Much of that has to do with one of the most under-appreciated young stars in the association, who is also making a strong case for bubble MVP. Booker has scored 30 points in five of the Suns’ last six games and his 35 points on Tuesday tied Walter Davis for the franchise record for career 30-point games (90). The 23-year old matched Davis by playing 426 fewer games.
Most 30-point games in Suns franchise history:
90 — Devin Booker
90 — Walter DavisGames played with the Suns:
340 — Devin Booker
766 — Walter Davis pic.twitter.com/MSdxbrUlP4— StatMuse (@statmuse) August 10, 2020
While a 7-0 restart and a cold-blooded game-winner just a few days ago over two of the league’s best defenders will certainly wake people up, simply put, Booker has been doing this.
Booker surpassed NBA legend Kobe Bryant back in January as the fourth-youngest player ever to record 7,000 career points. He also became the youngest guard to ever hit that mark; only LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Carmelo Anthony have done it quicker.
What makes Booker and the Suns even more fun to watch in Orlando is their young supporting cast.
Perhaps the only sight better for Suns’ fans than Booker’s further ascension into stardom is the steady play of big man Deandre Ayton. The former No. 1 overall pick in the 2018 NBA Draft has come into his own as a viable Robin to Booker’s Batman. Ayton is averaging 15.5 points, 9.5 rebounds in the bubble (18.4 points and 11.5 rebounds on the season) and has become a plus defender both in unfavorable switches and in the paint where opponents are shooting 8.9 percentage points worse than their average inside six feet of the basket when he’s challenging them.
On the wing, the emergence of Mikal Bridges and Cameron Johnson as 3-and-D threats has given the Suns’ starting lineup the versatility it needs. Bridges’ defense was a certainty coming out of Villanova in 2018, but his leaps on the offensive end have made a considerable impact. Tuesday’s win was Bridges’ best game of the restart – and perhaps of the season – where he dropped 24 points on 8-10 shooting and nailed three 3-pointers, a sign of his scoring capability.
Mikal Bridges pull-up 3. Splash. pic.twitter.com/yklhV5WZJm
— Jackson Frank (@jackfrank_jjf) August 10, 2020
Johnson was the No. 11 overall pick of last year’s draft and has outplayed his draft-day stock virtually all season. His 39.2% shooting from three (35.9% in the bubble) illustrates Johnson’s accuracy from deep and his ability to rebound (two 12-rebound games in the bubble) is overlooked.
The Suns’ top-six defense since the restart and genuinely surprising backcourt play from guys like Ricky Rubio, Cameron Payne and Jevon Carter can’t be considered the new standard. But a starting lineup of Rubio, Booker, Bridges, Johnson and Ayton, which owns a plus-25.9 net rating, is a promising launching point.
A couple of things are true: Phoenix is still well below .500, there is no guarantee they make or even win the play-in tournament, and if they do, it’ll likely be met with a first round exit at the hands of the Los Angeles Lakers.
But with a bonafide star in Booker beaming with confidence, a young, promising core and now a respected head coach in Monty Williams, the Suns’ days in the basement of the Western Conference appear numbered.
