Let’s give a nod to Devin Booker’s defense during Suns’ playoff run

The days where we’re able to watch this version of the Phoenix Suns in real time are ticking away. Quickly, we’ll turn our attention to the Olympic games, then the NBA Draft and free agency.

It sure looks like, with a 2-0 NBA Finals lead on the Milwaukee Bucks, the Suns could be soon crowned champs.

Regardless, there aren’t many more games this season to talk about something that we haven’t too much this year: Devin Booker’s defense.

It’s been pretty darn good the length of these playoffs. After a Game 1 win over the Bucks on Tuesday, there was this impressive stat dropped:

BoOk DoEsN't PlAy DeFeNsE pic.twitter.com/oKJkgwunQ3

— The Bright Side (@BrightSideSun) July 9, 2021

Through two games of the Finals, the Bucks’ Jrue Holiday and Khris Middleton are 3-of-17 matched with Booker as the primary defender.

After Booker began the Western Conference Finals against the Clippers, I asked Suns head coach Monty Williams if his star shooting guard gets enough credit for what he does on defense considering. He’d just put up a 40-point triple-double and played as the point guard for longer stretches because Chris Paul was out due to COVID-19, but his defense quietly had stood out dating back to the first-round series against the Lakers.

“No, I don’t,” Williams answered, very predictably. “He’s not like a lot of these guys who can only score. He defends, he understands defensive concepts at a high level, he doesn’t back down from a matchup. We put a lot on him defensively. There’s games where Book is guarding a point guard, he’s guarding the primary ball-handler, and that’s a lot.

“His conditioning is about as good as I’ve seen from a player I’ve been around. He’s one of those guys who doesn’t get tired. … he doesn’t get enough credit for defense he displays every game.”

When you consider the lazy narratives that chased Booker into his first postseason in six years as an NBA player, the “bad defender” label is attached to the thought that he’s an empty-calories scorer who hadn’t won anything. And to be clear, it wasn’t completely wrong.

Few in the NBA play consistently great defense playing for losing teams. Current Bucks forward P.J. Tucker doing so when he was with the Suns was a pretty rare thing. Eric Bledsoe going from being chill with getting blown by on the Suns to Second Team All-Defense after he was traded to Milwaukee is more the standard.

Anyway, in these playoffs, with everything on the line, Booker has been there.

Let’s consider a few things:

— He’s started some games defending score-first point guards such as Dennis Schroder, Reggie Jackson and Jrue Holiday. That has helped Phoenix get off to strong defensive starts, taking some key players out of rhythm.

On Thursday in a 118-108 win against the Bucks, Booker read a Holiday attack in semi-transition and stayed in front of the athletic guard. That’s just effort.

— Deeper into games, Booker has often been sent to defend whomever is in the corner, provided that matchup makes sense. There, he is able to save his legs against stand-still shooters, and he’s generally less able to be targeted on initial actions. In the clip below, he shows attentiveness off the ball, putting his foot in the lane to scare off a strong-side driver while recovering to challenge a Holiday corner attempt on the kick:

— Booker has been targeted when he’s on defense, too. The Nuggets’ Aaron Gordon (Game 1 of the conference semis), the Clippers’ Paul George (Game 1 of the conference finals) and Los Angeles’ Marcus Morris Sr. (Game 5 of the conference finals) have all had their go at him in given stretches. He didn’t give those guys anything easy.

— Booker’s usage rate (31%) remains very high and he’s often times carrying his team offensively while averaging 40.7 minutes over 18 playoff games. Yet he’s still holding everything down as a defender. Considering how hard he works to free himself up on offense or to play-make, Booker is still full of effort chasing players across screens and recovering on switches:

That’s all got to count for something.

Booker is probably never going to be an elite defender, nor should he because of all the weight he carries on offense.

The IQ and effort and the type of shape it takes to compete with that workload, well, that at the very least deserves massive credit, even if Booker links it to youth.

“Just preparation, taking care of your body. There’s a whole list of it,” he said after the Game 2 win against Milwaukee. “But I think the adrenaline and me and Mikal, we’re some young guys, we’re young and getting it and trying to get after it. So, I don’t feel tired, for real.”

Added Williams: “You know, there are times where I get the look when I even ask him about (being tired). It’s like insulting to him when I ask him about his stamina. I’m sure it does happen, but the really good players, great players in this league don’t allow being tired to keep them from doing what they have to do.”

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