Advanced Stats 101 Lesson 4- True Shooting Percentage And Devin Booker's Dynamic Playoff Effort
There Might Not Be A Better Player In The NBA Playoffs Right Now Than The Phoenix Suns Guard
(Thanks- Matt York/AP Photo)
For most players in the league, the transition from being only a scorer to having to do both is very difficult. When you look at Devin Booker’s transition to having to do both, it came with growing pains. In the 2018-2019 season, Devin had to do both as the Phoenix Suns had a rotation door of Point Guards. He finished the season averaging 26.6 points per game, and he averaged 6.8 assists. But he also averaged 4.1 turnovers and had 15 games of 6 or more turnovers.
In the following season, he had to play both roles again, and he became more comfortable having to do both. His assist average remained close to what it was in the previous season, averaging under 4 turnovers a game and still scoring over 26 points per game.
But the double-duty for Booker wasn’t leading the Suns to NBA Playoffs. So they traded for Chris Paul, which allowed Booker to go back to being a primary scorer. Because of Paul’s injury history, Booker knew at some point that he might have to step back into that double-duty role again.
So when Paul injured his groin in Game 2 of the Western Conference Semi-Finals against the Denver Nuggets, it placed Devin Booker back into a familiar setting. It’s a role that he has done 14 times this season and 26 times in the last three seasons. He had to be.
Even though they did not win Game 2, Suns fans knew what to expect from Booker in Game 3. In the previous 26 games, Booker averages 29.1 points per game, 6.8 assists per game, and shoots 50.4% from the field. His numbers have skyrocketed this season, and he’s had some of his best games when the future Hall of Famer has not been in the lineup.
This season alone, he’s had five games of over 30 points (including a 51-point game against Chicago), five games with 8 or more assists, and 9 games with 2 or fewer turnovers. In the last two games, while his team was down 2 games to 0 against the Nuggets, Booker has been extraordinary.
Booker masterfully picked apart the Nuggets’ defense. He hit 20 of his 25 shot attempts from the floor (80%). As you can see from his shot chart, he scored from all over. (Thanks NBA.com) He finished the game with the highest True Shooting percentage (90.8) of any player who’s scored 30 or more points in a playoff game this season.
Before I continue, some might not know what a True Shooting percentage is. Let's take a moment to understand how the True Shooting percentage is created. True Shooting is a concept that looks more in-depth at how capable a player is at shooting, instead of just looking at the typical shooting stats (Field Goal, Free Throw, and Three-Point percentage).
For this example, we will use Booker’s 47-point performance in Game 3 against Denver. So you will divide the number of points a player scores by the number of field goal attempts plus the total of 0.44 plus the number of Free Throw attempts. Then you take that number and multiply it by 2.
So you would take Booker’s 47 points and divide by 25 (his Field Goal attempts) + 0.44 times 2 (his Free Throw attempts) and take that total and multiply by 2.
TS %= 47/ 2* (25 + 0.44*2)
TS %= 47/ 2 (25.88)
TS %= 47/ 51.76
Booker’s TS% for Game 3 was 90.8 %
His 47 points were the third-highest-scoring game at that point in the entire playoffs. As you look deeper into the shot chart, he only missed one shot that wasn’t in the paint or behind the three-point line.
Booker has turned into the master of the midrange in the playoffs. He has taken the 3rd most mid-range shots per game (6.2) but is the only player who attempts at least 4 shots per game that hits over 60% of their shots. It is not only his mid-range mastery that has been outstanding, it’s his shooting altogether.
He is the only player in NBA Playoff history to have a shooting stat line of 60% from the field, 50% from the three-point line, and 80% from the free-throw line. There is not one area on the court where Booker shoots under 50% in the playoffs (Thanks Basketball Reference).
In Sunday Night’s Game 4, Booker was just as efficient as he was on Friday night. He finished 14 for 18 from the floor and 3 of 4 from downtown as the Suns tied the series. He finished the game with an 87.2% true shooting percentage (2nd highest game in the playoffs). So far in the playoffs, Booker has four of the top 11 highest true shooting performances of the entire playoffs. No other player has more than one.
He has been particularly dominant in his performances because of the 9 or more assists he has gotten in each of the games, with 12 on Sunday night alone. Devin tops the NBA playoffs in scoring (36.8) and is in sixth place for assists (7.4) per game. The Phoenix Suns can be confident that Devin Booker can be a scorer and facilitator as they journey back to Denver for Tuesday's important Game 5, with Paul's availability still uncertain.