Winning, not All-Star games, matter to Devin Booker and Eric Bledsoe
Jan 25, 2017, 4:44 PM | Updated: Jan 26, 2017, 11:23 am
PHOENIX -– It’s been five years, assuming no selections this season, since a Phoenix Suns player last made an NBA All-Star team.
The drought, however, may soon come to an end.
Two reasons: Eric Bledsoe and Devin Booker.
They are two young stars trending toward superstar status.
Bledsoe, 27, and Booker, 20, form one of the best scoring backcourts in the NBA, each averaging better than 20 points per game. Only three other sets of backcourt teammates can make the same claim: Damian Lillard (26.2) and C.J. McCollum (23.5) in Portland, Stephen Curry (24.6) and Klay Thompson (21.1) in Golden State plus John Wall (23.1) and Bradley Beal (21.9) in Washington.
With four of those playmakers residing in the Western Conference, which is also home to two of the league’s top three scorers (MVP candidates Russell Westbrook and James Harden), a perennial all-star in Chris Paul (though hurt), and the game’s highest-paid player in Mike Conley, there does not appear to much room left on an all-star roster for Bledsoe or Booker.
At least not this season.
Yes, they each admitted Wednesday, the day before the all-star reserves were to be announced, they think about making an NBA All-Star team. But that’s not what dominates their thoughts.
“We don’t play for that. We play to win basketball games. That’s just a goal we want to accomplish in our career,” Bledsoe said, referring to being an all-star. “I play for the Phoenix Suns. I want to win basketball games, make the playoffs every year with this team…that’s the most important thing.”
Added Booker, “Maybe in the next few years. It would be unbelievable, though. Growing up, obviously, that’s one of your dreams is to be an all-star in the NBA. Hopefully sometime in my career it comes. I mean, I’m working hard towards it, but that comes with winning, so once we start winning that’s when I’ll feel like I deserve that.”
And right now the Suns, whose last all-star representative was Steve Nash in 2012, aren’t winning, not consistently enough.
While they’ve won two of their last three and are 5-5 since Jan. 3, the Suns at 15-30 own one of the four worst records in the NBA.
“All the wining teams have all-stars,” Booker said. “I remember that year Atlanta was No. 1 in the East and had four all-stars, and now that they’re losing, I don’t think any of those guys are all-stars this year. It just shows you when you’re winning, everybody looks good.”
Bledsoe and Booker certainly deserve to be in the all-star conversation.
Bledsoe just recently had a four-game run of at least 20 points, five assists and five rebounds, the longest such streak by a Suns player since Charles Barkley did so in four straight games from Dec. 15-20, 1993. Overall, Bledsoe leads the team in both points (20.8) and assists (6.2).
Booker, meanwhile, with his 26-point effort against Minnesota on Tuesday, extended his career-long streak of scoring at least 20 points to 10 games. He’s averaging 27.3 points on 49.0 percent shooting from the field and 53.6 percent from 3-point range over this 10-game stretch.
“I tell the players this all the time, you have to be great before people can acknowledge it. No one is ever going to tell you you’re great before you arrive, but you have to believe it and know it and consistently do it; and eventually when we start winning everyone else will take knowledge and give you your due, your credit,” head coach Earl Watson said, before quickly adding, “Our guys, they don’t care about that. They want to go out there and compete. They want to compete every night.”
Watson believes there’s something even bigger than all-star selections in the near future for both Bledsoe and Booker.
“I have no doubt those two will be competing for the Western Conference Finals, in the Finals, sooner than later. No doubt,” he said. “And whatever comes along with that is just individual accolades. You ask those two, they want to win. They want to pursue and win a championship, but it starts slowly. You have to put in the work, you have to be in the moment and build up to that moment.”
FREE THROWS
— Tyson Chandler, who has made one all-star appearance, is playing like an all-star as of late. Against Minnesota, he recorded his fourth double-double (22 points and 17 rebounds) in the last seven games. And he’s now grabbed at least 15 rebounds in eight of the last nine games.
“It’s unbelievable,” Booker said. “The stretch he’s put on this month is unbelievable. I don’t know how he does it. He must be eating right.”
— Quietly, Brandon Knight has scored in double figures in three straight games, his best stretch since the calendar turned. He’s played at least 20 minutes in all three games, as well, perhaps showing 1. He’s healthy following a bout of right wrist tendinitis, and 2. He’s heeded Watson’s call to play better defense.
“His aggressiveness, defending the ball, pushing the ball. Getting to the free throw line, I think, has been big,” Watson said, listing Knight’s recent efforts. “When he finds a chance to hit his jump shot, he’s hitting his jump shot, but mainly the way he’s defending the ball. His speed.”
— The scheduling quirk that finds the Suns playing the Nuggets twice in three days, first in Denver on Thursday, doesn’t bother Watson, who is more looking forward to the upcoming three-game homestand.
“My fridge is terrible, my fridge is sad,” he said, laughing. “I looked at my fridge the other day and I had like two water bottles. I had some eggs, and I don’t know when I bought those eggs. This is terrible. I have to find a way to get to the grocery store one day.”
