NOW IN: Devin Booker will be unbeatable next season if he improves in just one area.

Devin Booker will need to have a huge 2024–25 season for the Phoenix Suns to get back on track, and he can accomplish that by making progress in one area.

The potential of the Phoenix Suns’ roster is limited by the performance of their three stars. Devin Booker will always be the team’s cornerstone as long as he is in the area, even though Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal may have already reached their prime in The Valley.

Booker had a terrific season in 2023–24 as well, but after a disappointing postseason performance, he may have lost some of the fans’ respect. Booker is falling behind as these players further enhance their already remarkable reputations, with Jayson Tatum making his way back to the NBA Finals for the second time and Anthony Edwards emerging as a major force.

In order to re-enter the conversation, Booker obviously needs to step up his game, and there is one weapon he can add to his toolbox to make him unbeatable.
That one item, which seems so clear, that he can drastically improve on? His 3-point shooting percentage was a respectable 36.4 percent during the previous season. There is definitely space for improvement there, especially considering that Booker shot slightly more threes per game (6.1) than Grayson Allen, the Suns’ top scorer (5.9).

The fact that Allen shot at nearly the same volume as Booker and led the league (46.1%) in this category just serves to highlight Booker’s ability to catch up to Allen. Naturally, there are higher expectations for Booker’s offensive output, and the reason Allen went on to lead the league in this category is that he is such a skilled passer who is eager to transfer the ball to teammates.

But if we go back to the 2021-22 season, Booker managed to shoot what tied a career high of 38.1 percent from 3-point range, while taking seven shots from deep each night. On only one other occasion since entering the league has Booker shot over 38 percent from beyond the arc.

That would be 2017–18, which is noteworthy since it’s the only other season in which he has made more than seven tries in this region. It’s evident that Booker can shoot a little bit more from downtown, even though he can’t always rely on his offensive prowess because he plays with All-Star caliber colleagues in Durant and Beal.

Complicating matters further last season was the fact Booker was also the Suns’ point guard, an experiment which he was willing to buy into, but which did not particularly pay off. The hope is that next season new head coach Mike Budenholzer has a floor general out there with Booker – he certainly hopes that’s the case – which will allow Booker to get off the ball more and shoot.

How then can Booker not only get back to this level of production, but also flirt with approaching 40 percent on these shots next season? Having that aforementioned point guard will help, although center Jusuf Nurkic has to do a better job of creating more open space for Booker to work. This should in theory be easier with Durant and Beal requiring a lot of attention from opponents as well.

If that can happen – and if Booker takes on the responsibility of taking even one extra shot from 3-point range each night – then history and the numbers would say that good things are going to happen. Booker’s stroke and release are nice and consistent, as they should be for a superstar of his quality.

But if he could make defenders respect that outside shot that little bit more, it would take his game to the final level. The two best players in the finals in Tatum (37.6 percent) and Doncic (38.2 percent) had better regular seasons from deep than Booker.

However, Booker shot only five times a game in the postseason and made 35 percent of his 3-pointers, which is more than Doncic (34.3 percent on 9.8 tries) and Tatum (a dismal 29 percent on 7.1 attempts). That makes it evident that Booker can perform at his best from beyond the arc when the game slows down and teams focus on him.

All that’s left to do is carry it over into the regular season, and this Suns team can perform at its best with a little more consistency. Booker is fortunate to have Budenholzer as his head coach, who will undoubtedly embrace this as well. Durant and Nurkic will also have more space to work hard (Durant) or in the paint (Nurkic). Hopefully, that’s what he’s spent this summer focusing on.