Suns face new-look Rockets with Booker needing just what Harden got
Nov 16, 2017, 6:01 AM | Updated: 11:49 am
PHOENIX — It’s a minor miracle Devin Booker’s usage has remained steady, and reasonably low, so far this season.
Three games into the year, the Phoenix Suns traded point guard Eric Bledsoe. Of late, they’ve allowed Booker to bring the ball up the court to initiate offense like a point guard as Tyler Ulis and Mike James have hit rough patches.
T.J. Warren’s emergence as a solid No. 2 option has taken the pressure off Booker, but with two practice days between their loss to the Los Angeles Lakers and a Thursday showdown against the Houston Rockets, coach Jay Triano has been hoping to make things easier on Booker.
It’s still not so easy that Booker might, at times, need to match up defensively with James Harden, the NBA leader in usage (36 percent) — a statistic measuring how many plays a player ends with a shot, turnover or free throw. The Rockets’ star also leads the league in assists (10.3 per game) and is the second-leading scorer (30.5 points per game).
“You have to be in amazing shape, and you have to have the endurance to be able to make the right decisions and play through physicality and bring the ball up,” Triano said Thursday of a player’s ability to lead a team in scoring and play-making.
That’s the task Booker faces as the Suns’ point guard of the future remains to-be-decided.
Since Bledsoe left the team before being traded to the Milwaukee Bucks, James’ hot start to his rookie year hit a wall, as he’s failed to hit double-figure scoring in the last two games.
Ulis has been hot and cold without former second-unit mate Alan Williams running the pick-and-roll with him.
For now, the Suns must adapt and survive with just two players on the roster that could be considered anything more than limiting offensive pieces.
“We’re looking at some movement sets or some sets where they can be off the ball sometimes,” Triano said of his point guards. “It’s my responsibility to put them off the ball and we have different ball handlers and they need to be ready to shoot it when they get it.”
For Booker, the responsibilities will only grow as opposing defenses direct their schemes to shut down him and Warren, forcing others to beat them.
Booker ranks 20th in the league in usage with 28.1 percent of possessions ending with him, but one of the steps forward expected to come in his third season is coming true.
He’s setting up others better than ever.
Averaging 23.2 point and 3.9 assists per game, Booker is just outside a select group of 14 players averaging 20 points and four assists per game.
That’s significant because it’s All-Star territory.
Only one of those 14, fellow third-year guard D’Angelo Russell, hasn’t been to an All-Star game.
While the Thursday matchup against Houston reminds that Booker is reaching the territory of Harden, the best shooting guard in the NBA, it’s also a reminder that the Suns have a looming question at point guard after trading away Goran Dragic, Isaiah Thomas and Bledsoe over the last three years.
That the Rockets went out and acquired Chris Paul, who is expected to return from a knee injury that kept him out of every game but the season-opener, to help Harden shouldn’t be lost.
INJURY REPORT
— Triano said the Suns are fighting off a cold bug that’s going around. Booker practiced Thursday but was one of the players dealing with the illness, while it put Tyson Chandler on the injury report.
He, along with center Greg Monroe (calf), are questionable.
Monroe went through practice Thursday.
“I guess we’ll evaluate how he is tomorrow,” Triano said of the center acquired in the Bledsoe trade. “It’s still a matter of how much he’s picking up of our stuff and how restricted our playbook is in the game.”
