Devin Booker has established himself as one of the best shooting guards in the NBA at present, but there was a time when he wasn’t thought of as anything special. His first few seasons in the NBA with the Suns saw Booker put up very good numbers for someone so young but the team was an absolute disaster, as the Suns wouldn’t even win 30 games in any of Booker’s first 4 seasons in the league. It led to Booker being labeled as one of those players who have inflated stats because they are on bad teams.
Things started to change a little bit in the 2019-20 season and especially in the Bubble, where the Suns went 8-0. They still missed the playoffs, but there was finally something to build on and when they acquired Chris Paul in the offseason, the Suns took off. They made it to the NBA Finals in 2021, where Booker had multiple 40-point outings and while the Suns lost, he silenced a lot of his critics.
Jared Dudley Says He Always Knew Devin Booker Was Going To Be Special
One of Booker’s teammates during those early years in Phoenix was Jared Dudley. Dudley returned to the Suns in 2016, having previously had a stint on the team from 2008 to 2013 and while those on the outside didn’t think much of Booker, Dudley could see a star in the making when asked about him during a recent episode of the Run Your Race podcast.
“For sure. You would know Book right away, The difference between Book and Giannis (Antetokounmpo), is Giannis didn’t have the coordination, Book always had the coordination.”
“Book’s always been a bucket. He’s always been a three-level, post, mid-range. The thing about Book is his confidence is crazy. His confidence, it’s like he feels like he’s better than you… it’s no shock what Book is where he is.”
Booker’s stock is a bit low at this point after the Suns shockingly collapsed in Game 7 against the Mavericks in the Conference Semifinals but there is no denying that the man is a bucket. He is one of the more polished scorers in the league and has been for a long time. He’ll need all of that confidence that Dudley speaks about here to come back from that devastating defeat as the Suns look to right the wrongs of last season.
Dudley also compared Booker’s early years with that of Giannis Antetokounmpo and how different the two were in their development at that stage. Dudley was teammates with Giannis in his second year in the league, just like Booker, and said during this episode that he was the one who told Jason Kidd to start the young Greek over him in 2014.
