Former NBA champion praises Devin Booker's leadership for carrying Phoenix Suns: “He's such a different guy than he was that had 70 in Celtics”
Devin Booker’s growing efforts in Phoenix have caught the eye of the former champion.
Fresh off a 51-point performance against the Chicago Bulls, Booker has jumped into the limelight.
The thing is, scoring 50 is not irregular for Devin Booker. Brian Scalabrine joined Frank Isola to explain why he believes Booker is a different guy now, in a better way.
This time though, Devin scored 51 in just three-quarters of the game. Booker did not play a minute in the fourth quarter.
Devin Booker now has four 50-point performances since joining the league, averaging a career-best 29.0 points per game. There is no doubting his skill.
However, Brian adds that there is a side to Booker emerging that we have never seen before.
Devin once scored 70 points when he was just 20 years old, and his team lost the game. Regardless of who was to blame for a loss like that, putting up such numbers to lose is daunting.
Scalabrine infers that it was because Booker was focusing more on scoring and playing alone than on being a leader.
Devin has now grown into a team player with a higher basketball IQ.
The former champ outlines:
“He’s carrying his team, he's making timely shots, he’s defending. He’s such a different guy that he was that guy that had 70 in Celtics when they lost by 20. He’s so good of a player, he’s efficient now”
Frank Isola (@thefrankisola) & Brian Scalabrine (@scalabrine) discuss Devin Booker's performance last night and his sneakily impressive season thus far.
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Devin Booker is growing into a higher-IQ player
Booker scored 70 points when he was 20 years old, making him the youngest player to ever do so. He was also the youngest to record 60 points, and the third youngest to record 50-point games behind Brandon Jennings and LeBron James.
However, Booker scored that many points, shooting 21-40.
Since that performance, the Phoenix Suns have made strides into the offseason and even into the Finals (2021). Unfortunately, they were matched against a hungry Giannis Antetokounmpo driving the Bucks, and the Suns lost 4-2.
The progression from losing a game in which you dropped 70 points to being a key contributor to your team reaching the finals is significant.
This season, Booker scored his big 70, and the Suns finished 15th with 24 wins to 58 losses (2017)
The following season, they finished in the same place, with 21 wins and 63 losses.
Fast forward to the last two seasons, and the Suns finished 2nd in the West with 51 wins to 21 losses in 2020-21. The following year, they finished 1st in their conference with a big 68 wins to 18 losses.
After four years of growth, Booker has completely flipped his team around.
The effort can be credited to Chris Paul as well, who has helped Devin steer the ship in the proper direction. But the growth in Booker is definitely visible.
Kevin Durant, often credited as the best shooter of all time, took to Twitter to comment on Booker’s most recent outing.
KD outlined:
“20-25 is F*****n ridiculous Devin Booker.”
20-25 is Fuckin ridiculous Devin Booker.