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OK, granted, your mileage may vary when it comes to what’s interesting about the worst team in the NBA. But over the past couple of weeks, first-year head coach Igor Kokoskov has decided to take a much longer look at a lineup featuring Devin Booker as the de facto point guard alongside an extra wing on the court—an alignment my colleagues have considered more than once. As it turns out, the Suns look a whole lot better running things through their franchise centerpiece.
Phoenix has logged 227 minutes this season with Booker on the court without nominal point guards Isaiah Canaan, Elie Okobo, or De’Anthony Melton, according to NBA.com’s lineup data. Nearly all of those no-PG minutes have come in the past two weeks, since Kokoskov elevated rookie swingman Mikal Bridges into the starting lineup; the new first five of Booker, Bridges, Deandre Ayton, Trevor Ariza, and T.J. Warren is a promising plus-12 in 63 minutes, and the Suns are 2-4 in Bridges’s six starts, with wins over the Spurs and Bucks. With Booker on the ball, the Suns have outscored opponents by 4.7 points per 100 possessions. That’s just about the same point differential as the very good Indiana Pacers—whom the Suns hung with until the final minute on Tuesday—have managed on the season, and it is an Incredible Hulk–style leap over Phoenix’s full-season net rating, which is tied for the NBA’s worst.
The fit just makes more sense. Moving Canaan to the bench and handing Booker the reins removes an unnecessary impediment to the Suns getting the ball where they want it on a given possession; as Mike D’Antoni said two years back after naming James Harden the Rockets’ full-time point guard, “Why camouflage it?” It also makes room for Bridges, who has been one of the most effective members of the 2018 draft class out of the gate.
The Suns have been awful defensively this season, but they’ve been significantly better with Bridges on the floor, allowing just 101.6 points per 100 possessions in his minutes. That’s carried over into the new-look starting lineup, which is bigger—another benefit of replacing a (listed at) 6-foot point guard with a 6-foot-7 small forward with a 7-foot-1 wingspan—and more disruptive at the point of attack.
Adding Bridges to the perimeter group of Ariza and Warren allows Kokoskov to station two viable shooters in the corners and one in the slot, creating more space for Booker and Ayton to work in the two-man game. That increases the likelihood that Booker will have either an easy pass to make as he turns the corner toward the paint off the dribble ...
Tony Buckets! pic.twitter.com/QnSTA5WZVn
— Phoenix Suns (@Suns) November 24, 2018
… or room to dribble into a rhythm jumper:
.@DevinBook is already 4-for-4 with 8 points!
pic.twitter.com/ndSihVaNsp
— Phoenix Suns (@Suns) November 25, 2018
Booker’s shooting percentage has dipped when he’s been the lone facilitator, but he’s still scoring at a high clip and dishing more dimes than ever. He’s averaging 31.9 points and 12.8 assists per 100 possessions of no-PG floor time; the only players averaging more than 30 and 10 per 100 this season are Harden and Russell Westbrook.
Going all in on Point Book won’t change Phoenix’s fortunes overnight; there’s just too much for all this youth to learn, especially defensively, for the Suns to suddenly become the superteam Booker hopes to lead. But giving Booker the keys empowers Phoenix’s best player to take ownership of the team, creates more opportunity for the team’s two 2018 lottery picks to share the court, and gives the Suns their best chance of finding a group that can have sustained, replicable success for the first time since Goran Dragic and Eric Bledsoe partnered up. Continuing to explore a lineup with this kind of potential is the sort of experiment that can turn a season going nowhere into the start of something bigger.
>i hope he gets that shot. i think he's earned it. he's shown
>some serious playmaking ability out of the P&R.
>
>the way MDA uses harden is pretty much the ideal of what you
>want out of your point guard/lead guard/playmaker in the
>modern nba offense: good size, ability to shoot, drive or
>create after a ball screen, equally comfortable on- or
>off-ball, a knack for getting to the charity stripe.
>
>booker can become that type of player imo. kokoskov should use
>him the same way he used doncic for slovenija. surround him
>with wings and let him get busy.
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it is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts. - sherlock holmes
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