The 5: The best seasons by 21-and-under Suns

Youth isn’t hard to come by for the 2016-17 Phoenix Suns.

Devin Booker will turn 20 years old this Sunday. Rookie Tyler Ulis won’t be able to legally drink until Jan. 5. Forward Marquese Chriss is 19 and Dragan Bender is the youngest player in the league at 18 years old.

All of those players have the opportunity to contribute immediately. Either this year or next, it’s possible they have some of the franchise’s most productive seasons for their age group. And that got us to thinking: Which players 21 years old or younger have put together the most noteworthy seasons with Phoenix?

Using advanced metrics like Players Efficiency Ratings (PER) and Value Over Replacement Player (VORP) to narrow it down, then considering players who were leaned on to play heavy minutes, here’s a look at some of the best 21-and-under seasons by young Suns of the past.

Each player mentioned below was 21 or younger on Feb. 1 of the noted season.

Alvan Adams – 21 (1975-76)

No Suns youngster had close to the production that Adams did during his rookie year. And it just might’ve been his best one of his career. The lifelong Suns big man earned his only All-Star bid in leading Phoenix to the NBA Finals, and he averaged 19 points, 9.1 rebounds, 5.6 assists, 1.5 steals and 1.5 blocks in 80 regular season contests. That included six 30-point performances or better in the regular season, plus a 33-point, 14-rebound performance in Game 3 of the finals against the Boston Celtics. By VORP, PER and total Win Shares, Adams is untouchable compared to the rest on this list.

Amar’e Stoudemire – 20, 21 (2002-03, 2003-04)

Give Stoudemire credit for his first two seasons of 21-and-under ballin’. Both rank up there despite his leap into one of the game’s best big men in his second year. As a rookie, Stoudemire played in 82 games with 71 started to average 13.5 points, 8.8 rebounds and 1.1 blocks per game. It’s not comparable to his 20.6 points, 9 rebounds, 1.4 assists, 1.2 steals and 1.6 blocks in his second season as a 21-year-old, but he only played 55 games due to injury that year.

Kevin Johnson – 21 (1987-88)

Forget that Kevin Johnson was acquired in a trade that also netted current Suns staffers Mark West and Ty Corbin, and a pick that would become future Phoenix legend Dan Majerle. Johnson was worth the weight of Larry Nance, Mike Sanders and a future pick. After the midseason trade from the Cavaliers, Johnson played in 28 games for Phoenix as a rookie. He averaged 12.6 points along with 8.7 assists and 1.5 steals per game. It was a prelude to Johnson’s Phoenix career that included two All-Star bids, four consecutive years of double-double averages and the 1993 NBA Finals appearance.

Shawn Marion – 21 (1999-2000)

The 21-year-old out of UNLV played in 51 games with 38 starts as a rookie, and as the Matrix often did, he filled out the box score. Marion averaged 10.2 points along with 6.5 rebounds, 1.4 assists and a block per game while shooting 47 percent. Though Marion missed December and January of that season — and his starting spot with it — he returned in February and regained his starting role when forward Tom Gugliotta went down with a serious knee injury. Phoenix would beat the Spurs in a five-game series to make it to the second round of the playoffs, where they lost in five games to the Los Angeles Lakers.

Devin Booker – 19 (2015-16)

By the advanced metrics, Booker wasn’t close to reaching the level of production by the likes of Adams, Stoudemire, Johnson and Marion. But he was in as poor a position as one could think of when he suddenly found himself as Phoenix’s top offensive threat last year. Booker’s rookie year, by role, looked a bit like Joe Johnson’s 2002-03 season, his second year where he played 82 games and made 34 starts. It just came two years earlier, at the age of 19. Booker’s 76 games played and 51 starts are needed context alongside his 13.8 points, 2.5 rebounds and 2.6 assists averaged in 28 minutes per game. As a starter, the shooting guard out of Kentucky averaged 17.4 points, 3.5 assists, 3 rebounds on 41 percent shooting.

Notable omissions

— Joe Johnson (2001-02, 2002-03), Leandro Barbosa (2003-04), Cedric Ceballos (1990-91), Alex Len (2014-15), Robin Lopez (2009-10), Archie Goodwin (2015-16)

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