Suns’ Devin Booker, Chris Paul receive high praise in NBA GM survey

The Phoenix Suns earned praise on the 19th annual NBA.com GM survey, which was released Friday.

In light of the shortened 2020-21 NBA season starting this month, the survey was condensed across six categories.

General managers that responded to the survey answered 33 questions regarding predictions, players, offseason moves, rookies and international, coaches and miscellaneous.

As a disclaimer, GMs were not able to vote for their own team or personnel and percentages are based on the pool of respondents, not necessarily all 30 general managers.

Offseason moves

If there’s one category the Suns dominated in, it’s offseason moves — and it’s obvious why: The acquisition of 10-time All-Star point guard Chris Paul.

While the Los Angeles Lakers receiving 37% of the vote for the best offseason moves, the Suns finished with 22%. That’s largely thanks to Paul, who received the highest tally (44%) for which one player acquisition will have the biggest impact.

Players

When it comes to which players NBA decision-makers think are most likely to have a breakout season, look no further than Phoenix.

A total of 8% of general managers think Suns guard Devin Booker will be that player — although some may argue that national recognition of the former Kentucky Wildcats’ skill level is long overdue.

And while 8% may not seem like a lot, it ranked No. 4 on the list behind Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (15%), Denver’s Michael Porter Jr. (15%) and Sacramento’s De’Aaron Fox (12%). Suns center Deandre Ayton and Mikal Bridges also received votes.

Voting indicates that general managers think the Suns have one of the best backcourts in the NBA. Paul received 15% of the vote for the best point guard in the league, the fourth-high percentage, while 4% of GMs voted for Booker as the best shooting guard.

Paul trailed the likes of Golden State’s Stephen Curry (30%), Portland’s Damian Lillard (22%) and Dallas’ Luka Doncic (19%).

Booker’s 4% of votes may seem low, but that’s largely due to Houston’s James Harden claiming 68% of the tally. He was also behind Washington’s Bradley Beal (11%), Doncic (11%) and Miami’s Jimmy Butler (7%).

Coaches and miscellaneous

It was a pretty clean sweep for the Heat’s Erik Spoelstra, who took the cake for the best coach in the NBA, best motivator/manager of people and best at in-game adjustments.

When it came to future potential coaches, Paul earned the most votes for the current player who GMs think will be the best head coach one day. His 36% topped Atlanta’s Rajon Rondo (29%), Miami’s Udonis Haslem (7%) and Chicago’s Garrett Temple (7%) in the top four.

Predictions

While it’s no surprise that 81% of the vote came back predicting that the Lakers would repeat as champions, NBA general managers think two new teams are going to make the playoffs in the Western Conference.

One is the Golden State Warriors, whose injuries last year took them out of contention. The other team is none other than the Suns.

These playoff projections were based on the GMs’ rankings of the top four teams in the Western Conference. Phoenix received 4% of the votes as fourth-best, which landed the team at No. 8.

Such finish would put the Suns in the play-in tournament and give them a chance to end a decade-long postseason drought for the Valley’s oldest professional sports franchise.

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