PHOENIX — Thirty thousand feet in the air during his rookie season, Devin Booker found himself in a debate on the Phoenix Suns team plane.
The question was simple: Who was the better scorer, Booker or teammate Archie Goodwin? At 19, Booker was the youngest player in the NBA, while Goodwin, 21, was in his third season. The two former Kentucky Wildcats made their cases.
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A teammate chimed in. “Archie, you’re a better driver, but Book is a better shooter,” he said, according to someone who was there.
With confidence bordering on arrogance, Booker couldn’t let this slide. “I can score at all three levels,” he said. “Y’all just haven’t seen it.”
Some laughed, but six years later, no one doubts him. As the Suns prepare to meet the Lakers in the NBA playoffs, Booker is a two-time All-Star guard and one of the game’s top scorers. Over the next few weeks, for however long Phoenix survives, the franchise’s hopes will largely ride on the 24-year-old’s confidence and shooting touch.
This is the next test for Booker, but he has a strong foundation. A look back at his rookie season, one game in particular, reflects how his makeup has prepared him for this stage.
In the winter of 2016, the Suns’ season was already lost. On Jan. 19, they entered a home game against the Indiana Pacers at 13-29, buried deep in the heavyweight Western Conference. Coach Jeff Hornacek would be fired in two weeks. The season’s lone bright spot was Booker, and this was a surprise.
On the eve of the 2015 NBA Draft, the Phoenix newspaper had published a story under the headline, “Suns’ draft spot rarely produces elite players.” The story’s backbone: The draft had not produced an All-Star player selected with a pick in the low teens since 1996, when the Lakers traded up to No. 13 to select a high school player named Kobe Bryant. The Suns also selected 13th.
In other words, nobody get your hopes up.
Then-general manager Ryan McDonough didn’t see it that way. Looking back, he said the organization had liked nine or 10 players. They had gotten offers to trade back, but once Utah selected Kentucky forward Trey Lyles at 12, the pick was clear. “There was no question who we were taking,” McDonough said.
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Booker was considered the best shooter in the draft, but his complete game was mostly unknown. During his one season at Kentucky, the Wildcats had been so loaded with talent that Booker was reduced to a sixth-man role, a catch-and-shoot specialist. From a February scouting report by Eric Musselman, then an assistant coach at LSU:
BOOKER
High IQ player
Great range
Scores off pick and rolls and off screen
Unselfish, underrated athlete
Low volume dribbler
Does not waste his dribble
When ball is in his hands be alert for a shot
Leading up to the draft, Booker had worked out in Southern California with Don MacLean, a former UCLA star and NBA forward. The first thing MacLean realized, not only with Booker but also with teammate Karl-Anthony Towns, is that the Kentucky players had been so committed to their college roles, the film didn’t tell the complete story.
At Kentucky, Towns had been anchored to the post. But during his first workout with MacLean, in a drill called “25”, the 6-foot-11 center hit 20 of 25 jumpers from NBA 3-point distance. Same thing with Booker.
“I thought there was going to be a lot of teaching of screen-roll, a lot of footwork stuff because basically all you saw on tape was catch-and-shoot — but Devin had all that stuff,” MacLean said. “He was more advanced than I thought he was.”
After a slow start to his rookie season while stuck behind guards Eric Bledsoe and Brandon Knight, Booker showed his versatility. On Jan. 2, he had a season-high 21 points in loss at Sacramento. Four days later, he had 17 and 10 rebounds in a win over Charlotte.
But that January night against the Pacers was different. To open the game, Hornacek drew up a play for Booker. Starting for the 12th time, the youngest player in the NBA had become Phoenix’s go-to option. Knight initiated the offense and passed left to forward P.J. Tucker, curling into the lane. Booker, on the right wing, broke for the corner. Center Tyson Chandler set a back screen. Tucker lost his balance but managed to get the ball to Booker.
In one quick motion, the rookie set his feet and fired, fading slightly. Swish.
Booker let his teammates know his intentions right away upon joining the Suns. After his first Summer League game in Las Vegas, Booker, then 18, dressed slowly in a Cox Pavilion locker room. He had played 26 minutes off the bench, scoring 12 points but missing all four of his 3-point attempts.
In the locker room, Suns players discussed their evening plans. Some were headed out. Some planned to walk The Strip. Booker? “I’m going to go put up some shots,” he said. Developmental coach Jason Fraser heard this and approached the rookie.
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“Listen, Book,” he said. “Don’t change who you are. Remember what you said at this moment and keep that work ethic.”
At the McDonald’s All-American Game in high school, West coach Frank Allocco picked up on Booker’s intensity within a couple days. Booker reminded him of a quote from the Bible that his brother once taped on his bedroom wall: Quietness and confidence shall be my strengths.
“He was very humble, he was very quiet but he had this incredible confidence and belief in himself,” Allocco said.
The NBA tested his patience. After playing 21 minutes in a season-opening loss to Dallas, Booker played only two minutes in a win over Portland. The next game he didn’t play at all, one of five “DNPs” Booker had before Christmas. This was crushing.
“Very frustrating,” said his dad, Melvin Booker. “I had to become a therapist then. I had to go from father, trainer to therapist.”
To compensate, Booker put in extra work outside the Phoenix facility. If he didn’t play much, the next day he contacted his dad, living in South Scottsdale. “Dad, let’s go get some shots up,” he said, and the two would meet at Arizona State’s practice facility for a clear-your-head shooting session.
The father’s message: Be patient. It’s a long season. Wait for your opportunity. Seize the moment.
Booker also put in extra work with assistant Earl Watson, who would become interim head coach after Hornacek’s dismissal in February following a string of 19 Phoenix losses in 21 games. Watson set up post-practice drills to help Booker score from the elbow and mid-post. First, Booker had to score against the 6-foot-1 Watson. Then he had to do it against the 6-9 Fraser.
“He was not going to do anything close to the minimum,” McDonough said. “If there’s practice, he’s going to be early and he’s going to stay late. He’s going to get extra treatment and extra weights. He’s always going to try and find a gym and come back and shoot at night whenever that’s available or even when it’s not convenient. It’s just how he’s wired.”
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At the NBA Draft Combine, reporters had asked Booker what teams were most interested to see from him. “Ability to create my own shot,” he said without hesitation. “I’ve heard that a few times.” One coach had asked him to draw up a play. Another had asked him to stand and demonstrate how he would create separation from a defender.
Against the Pacers, all this was on display. In the first quarter, Booker scored off a baseline back cut to the rim. In the second, he came off a screen on the left elbow, pump-faked the Indiana defender into the air, took a step back to create separation and drilled a long jumper. At halftime, Booker had hit 5 of 6 field goals for a team-high 14 points.
Said Suns television analyst and former NBA forward Eddie Johnson, “He’s not getting enough shots.”
Versatile scorer. Tireless worker. The last thing Booker showed was his competitiveness.
Actually, Suns executives and coaches had witnessed this during a pre-draft workout in Phoenix. They had set up a 1-on-1 drill in which the offensive player stays on the court until he gets stopped, then rotates to defense, then to back of the line.
The problem: No one could stop Booker. “And we were just, OK, this is pretty impressive, but we have other things we want to do,” McDonough said. “And he was basically, like, ‘Bleep that. These guys got to stop me.’ And from an executive standpoint, that was interesting. We don’t have many 18-year-olds tell us, ‘No, no. We’re going to keep going here.'”
Those traits surfaced during the season as well. During a December game at Detroit, not far from where Booker had grown up in Grand Rapids looking up to former Pistons guard Rip Hamilton, he scored 18 points in 22 minutes. As he did so, he reminded everyone that Detroit had selected Arizona forward Stanley Johnson five spots ahead of him in the draft.
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“I’ve worked in the NBA since 2004, and it’s very rare that you get guys that young, one-and-done into the league, that have that kind of confidence to match that type of skill set,” said Irv Roland, then a developmental coach with the Suns. “Usually, guys will have one but not the other, but he had the game. He would talk a little bit but he could back it up.”
“I would say it was more so of him hyping himself up in a sense of him saying, ‘I’m that dude,'” Goodwin said. “He’d make a couple shots and just remind people, ‘Don’t let my age fool you.'”
Against the Pacers, Booker hit a corner 3 early in the third quarter. On the defensive end, Indiana forward Glenn Robinson III beat him on a back cut. Booker blocked Robinson’s shot from behind but also fouled him hard, sending him to the floor. Booker looked down at Robinson and glared at an official. “Bullsh*t call,” he said.
On the broadcast, Johnson said he never had seen a young player deliver as many hard fouls to established players. Looking back, he said, “It showed that he was competing. There’s no disrespect to the players. No disrespect to the game. He’s one of those guys that just doesn’t give up.”
Booker hit 9 of 16 from the field, including six 3s, and made 8 of 8 from the foul line for a season-high 32 points. Over the season’s final 39 games, he averaged 18.6 points, earning All-Rookie honors and becoming the face of the franchise before his 20th birthday. Over the next four seasons, Booker kept developing, winning 3-point shootouts and making All-Star teams, battling for respect around the league.
Now, he’s finally in the playoffs, the next obstacle in his basketball journey and no doubt the biggest. The stage will be bigger, the stakes higher. And yet: “That kid always had extra fire to him to prove people wrong,” Melvin Booker said.
Expect the postseason to be no different.
(Photo: Barry Gossage / NBAE via Getty Images)
