Getty Images Devin Booker of the Phoenix Suns.
Despite being eliminated by the defending NBA champion Denver Nuggets in the first round, the Phoenix Suns can draw out a few positives from their 2023 NBA Playoff run. The biggest positive had to be the performance of their starting shooting guard Devin Booker, who had the best playoff performance of his young NBA career.
In the 2023 playoffs, Booker averaged 33.7 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 7.2 assists per game. But his numbers are not the only impressive part of his stat line. The efficiency jumps off the page as well. Booker shot 58.5% from the field, 50.8% from beyond the arc, and 86.6% from the free throw line. His performance earned him praise from ex-Nuggets player Bruce Brown, one of Booker’s primary defenders in their second-round matchup.
“Book was making every shot. He was making every shot. Did you see his shot chart? It was all green. In the playoffs, all green,” Brown said during a recent appearance on “The Tidal League.”
Bruce Brown Opens Up About Time With Brooklyn
Before joining the Nuggets last season, Brown was a member of the Brooklyn Nets and was a key role player on former head coach Steve Nash’s roster. Brown spent two years with the Nets before departing from the franchise last summer as a free agent. Although he eventually became a staple in the Nets’ rotation, Brown admits that he had trouble finding his footing when he arrived in 2020.
“I feel like for me first getting there I was like ‘why am I here’ to be honest because it was like I wasn’t on the ball anymore. The roster was so deep, they had Taurean Prince, Caris LeVert, Joe Harris, Spencer Dinwiddie, like what am I supposed to do here?” Brown said.
“Then we traded for James Harden and I started playing, and they always put the weakest offender on me, and then obviously with James, KD, and Kyrie out there, they want the weakest offender yeah so I would go set screens and at the time they would hedge and I’d get buckets, but playing with those guys was crazy.”
Bruce Brown Gets Candid About 2021 Nets
Everything was aligning for the Nets in the 2020-21 season. Just months after debuting their All-Star duo of Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, general manager Sean Marks executed a trade that landed star shooting guard James Harden in Brooklyn. Then, they would also make waves via the buyout market, adding All-Star veterans LaMarcus Aldridge and Blake Griffin.
After beating the Celtics in five games in the first round and winning their first two games against the Milwaukee Bucks in the semifinals, it looked like Brooklyn was on its way to securing the first title in franchise history. But injuries to Harden and Irving during the series were too much to overcome and the Nets were eliminated by the Bucks in Game 7. Brown says he was confident that he and the Nets would have won it all if not for those injuries.
“Year three on that Bucks series, I thought we were going to win the whole thing. In the first two games, we beat them by 30 and 40. We should have won before Kyrie rolled his ankle, and James was playing on one leg,” Brown added.