NBA rookies agree: Phoenix Suns’ Devin Booker can shoot
Aug 20, 2015, 10:25 AM
The Phoenix Suns chose Devin Booker 13th overall in the 2015 NBA Draft because the former Kentucky Wildcat can shoot.
As a freshman last season, he shot 41 percent from 3-point range while scoring 10 points per game for one of the nation’s best teams.
That ability is something the Suns — who finished last season tied for 20th in the league in 3-point percentage — could use, and it’s a trait the NBA’s rookie class of 2015 believes Booker will bring to the next level.
In a survey of the rookies posted on NBA.com, Booker was named as the best shooter in the class, and it wasn’t even close.
The Suns guard earned 58.8 percent of the vote, while the next closest competitor — Pat Connaughton of the Portland Trail Blazers — garnered just 8.8 percent.
Worth noting: Booker, who shot 40 percent from 3-point range and 88 percent from the free-throw line in Summer League, was the only player to receive more than half of the votes for any question.
At this point there is no telling how big a role the 18-year-old will play in his first season, though if he can shoot the ball like that it’s hard to imagine the Suns not finding court time for him. And if it’s not this season, odds are Booker’s presence will be felt at some point in the near future. And when it is, the Suns may have something special.
Because the polling also revealed that some of the players in this year’s draft believe Booker was one of the night’s biggest steals, with him not leading the way but receiving votes in that category.
