Surround Devin Booker With Wings
The best lineup choice that the Suns can use likely will feature surrounding their franchise cornerstone, Devin Booker, with lengthy wing players that can knock down open spots. It would feature Booker at the point guard spot with Josh Jackson, Mikal Bridges, and Trevor Ariza on the perimeter along with DeAndre Ayton at center.
It turns out that I am not alone with this idea. SB Nation’s Bright Side of the Sun suggested this lineup on Twitter earlier this week as their favorite closing lineup. I agree that this particular group will probably be their best option to close games and it would not surprise me if it were their best unit in general.
What lineup combination are you excited to see in the regular season? For me, it’s the likely closing lineup of Booker-Jackson-Bridges-Ariza-Ayton.
— The Bright Side (@BrightSideSun) July 18, 2018
The glue that would hold this lineup together would be the ‘3-and-D’ wing players like Bridges and Ariza that primarily space the floor in spot-up and do dirty work on defense. It will force the opposition to stay honest with their approach to team defense because they will not want to give up open shots to them.
Having more spacing will be beneficial for Booker in a lot of areas, but especially when he is running pick-and-rolls and attacking in isolation. I say that because he frequently faced defensive commitments and badly struggled on pass outs when they happened, whether it was in the pick-and-roll or isolation.
Booker faced defensive commitments as a pick-and-roll ball handler on 367 possessions and produced only 0.828 points per possession. His efficiency ranked last in the NBA out of the 46 players with at least 350 of these possessions. Among that player pool, his 26.4% turnover frequency was the worst, and that will need considerable improvement.
Booker faced defensive commitments in isolation on 55 possessions and produced only 0.545 points per possession. His production ranked last in the league among the 24 players with at least 50 of these possessions. Turnovers were an issue in this area as well considering how his 27.3% turnover frequency was better than only DeMarcus Cousins and Harrison Barnes among that group of players.
There are a few downsides to this lineup. Unfortunately for the Suns, that is the case for all of their unit combinations since they lack a high-quality starting point guard and power forward and a good amount of their key players are rookies. The main downside is that they lack another perimeter playmaker and that could make the game challenging for Booker at times.
While there would be a heavy playmaking burden on Booker, it would give him the best chance to achieve needed growth in his skills as a point guard. Many plays featured difficult circumstances due to a lack of shooting and overall talent in his supporting cast. Having more impactful wing players will open the floor up for him and that would allow him to be on more of a level playing field and that should translate to better results.
Next Up: Try to Develop a Point Guard
