Suns’ Devin Booker wants to spend more time at the free-throw line

The Phoenix Suns are hoping a certain aspect of their first preseason game can become a trend rather than an occasional occurrence.

Second-year shooting guard Devin Booker found his way to the foul line eight times in 24 minutes against the Spurs. He knocked down all of them in a 91-86 win Monday night.

“I put on a lot of weight this year so I’m using my body a lot more,” Booker said when he was asked if getting to the free throw line was a point of emphasis for him. “People know about me so they’re going to be more aggressive with me this year. It’s getting involved that way, if my shot’s not falling getting points at the line will get me going.”

Booker has looked around the league to pick up some tricks in this area and found some from a recently-retired Lakers guard.

“Obviously when he (Kobe Bryant) was younger he was more athletic, more explosive,” Booker said in explaining what he’s tried to pick up from the future Hall-of-Famer. “When he got older he was more like me, a little bit slower, a lot of defenders a lot faster. You gotta use tricks, use your footwork, use their aggressiveness against them.”

One specific aspect of Bryant’s game Booker mentioned trying to incorporate was how much he posted up.

Booker showed off a little bit of a back-to-the-basket game last season, using it on 3.3 percent of his offensive possessions, according to the Synergy numbers at NBA.com.

In that limited sample size, he scored 1.11 points per possession and got to the foul line 21.6-percent of the time, which ranked 23rd-best in the NBA.

This was a part of the reason he was at the line a surprising 4.4 times per 36 minutes and had a free throw rate of .295.

“I use their aggressiveness against them,” Booker said. “If it’s a pump fake, if it’s driving the middle pump fake, jump into ’em. Usually the refs see the second contact so once you hit ’em first they try to retaliate and they call the foul on them. There’s a bunch of little tricks that you learn.”

Booker’s ability to get to the foul line as a rookie stands out as more impressive when you take a look at it compared to some other recent top twos in their first year.

FTAs per 36 minutes

Kobe Bryant 5.4
Dwyane Wade 5.3
James Harden 5.0
Devin Booker 4.4
Bradley Beal 3.3
Klay Thompson 2.0

How did the others progress in the same category in year two?

Dwyane Wade 9.2
Kobe Bryant 8.0
James Harden 5.6
Bradley Beal 2.7
Klay Thompson 1.9

The jump head coach Earl Watson wants Booker to make is in line with what Wade and Bryant accomplished from season one to season two.

“He knows in order to take his game to the next level it should be seven to 10 times per game, he understands that,” Watson said about Booker increasing his time at the free throw line. “He drives good enough. He’s fearless attacking the basket. And the more that he can do that for us, it’s really efficient for us.”

Booker came into the NBA with a reputation as a knock-down shooter and not much more.

He shattered any and all expectations because of the diversity he brought to the offensive end.

If Booker can hit around 38 to 40 percent of his threes plus increase the amount of times he gets to the line in his second year, the Suns guard will be well on his way to becoming one of the most effective offensive weapons in the entire league.