Booker in elimination games

DJ Tabooh

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I think when he’s on the court book is a really emotional guy. It can cut both ways with him. When he’s cruising that emotion lifts the entire team. But we’ve seen dumb emotional book get into shoot outs, or run back and take a dumb a foul after he doesnt get a call at the other end.

And I think he gets too amped for elimination games. He’s tightly wound and maybe gets too tight for these moments. And it spirals in on itself when no one else is seemingly stepping up.
This is a very fair take. He still has some bad habits which I think is surprising at 26, but he also just started playing on a winning team three years ago.

Whoever the next coach is has to continue to work with him on that. He’s not a perfect player but it’s not like Book just didn’t try or care. He just didn’t shoot well.

We kinda have a team of front runners…when things go well, we excel. When we miss shots, I think it festers into mistakes. This team still has some bad habits and that has to change if we’re gonna win a championship.
 

AzStevenCal

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The refs not taking a look at that play was a joke. Zero effort to go for the ball on that play, he just hooked Booker's arm while Booker was in the air at full speed.
Yeah and the fact it hasn't been upgraded to a flagrant since then is equally disturbing. The foul was intentional and it put a vulnerable player in jeopardy and clearly wasn't a basketball play. If Green did that while Booker was on the court, it's just an intentional foul but when he's that high and exposed, it's just dirty.
 

Cheesebeef

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Make of it what you will but before the foul that led to Booker hurting his foot/ankle, he had made 61 of his 95 shots. After that injury, he shot 8 for 28. It's not intended as an excuse but as one more example of why he really isn't in that elite class. He has to be in perfect health to excel. His defense, his efficiency and his turnovers when he isn't quite healthy move him down the star list IMO.
I think this is pretty fair. His pure motivation and ability to get the absolute most out of his God given skills is what makes him so great, but when even a little dinged, the lack of great size and elite athleticism takes just that much away from him where he can’t be special.

He’s a superstar. But despite some incredible performances this season, he’s still not a unicorn superstar. More in the mold of a Butler/Tatum-esque Superstar as opposed to the young LeBron/Curry/KD/Giannis/Embiid (when healthy)/Jokic type superstars.

I think the other thing that keeps him from those guys is how often those guys can or could dominate multiple games in multiple ways. LeBron (younger LeBron) and Jokic are like walking triple-doubles, Giannis can absolutely dominate a game on both ends. So can Embiid when healthy. Curry is literally an offense unto himself.

Booker can light up a scoreboard, and is usually solid in other areas and sometimes (rarely) elevated to triple double level, but those games are few and far between.

Saying all that, we’re still incredibly lucky to have him, but I still don’t think you can win a title with him as your #1 superstar… which was why I was in on KD, thinking he could be and then Booker’s the best 2 in the game. Sadly, that doesn’t even look close to the case for KD’s ghost and why we very well could be totally screwed for a while.
 

Cheesebeef

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This is a very fair take. He still has some bad habits which I think is surprising at 26, but he also just started playing on a winning team three years ago.

Whoever the next coach is has to continue to work with him on that. He’s not a perfect player but it’s not like Book just didn’t try or care. He just didn’t shoot well.

We kinda have a team of front runners…when things go well, we excel. When we miss shots, I think it festers into mistakes. This team still has some bad habits and that has to change if we’re gonna win a championship.
This is fair.
 

Phrazbit

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I think when he’s on the court book is a really emotional guy. It can cut both ways with him. When he’s cruising that emotion lifts the entire team. But we’ve seen dumb emotional book get into shoot outs, or run back and take a dumb a foul after he doesnt get a call at the other end.

And I think he gets too amped for elimination games. He’s tightly wound and maybe gets too tight for these moments. And it spirals in on itself when no one else is seemingly stepping up.

This is true.

He has gotten better over the years about some of this stuff but you still see it pop up here and there.
 

clyde2tw

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That Jeff Green dangerous foul injured Book. He lost touch after that. But even he were not hurt, there was no way they won Game 6, because all Monty did was no adjustment to opponents' adjustments, three years in a roll. MJ and Kobe didn't have to deal with such bad coaching and team play back then. I don't blame Book.
 

AzStevenCal

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That Jeff Green dangerous foul injured Book. He lost touch after that. But even he were not hurt, there was no way they won Game 6, because all Monty did was no adjustment to opponents' adjustments, three years in a roll. MJ and Kobe didn't have to deal with such bad coaching and team play back then. I don't blame Book.
I don't think there's any doubt the better team won. In fact, if it hadn't been for two incredible shooting performances by Devin they'd have swept us. His injury made us look worse than we were but we were always outclassed by them.
 

clyde2tw

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I don't think there's any doubt the better team won. In fact, if it hadn't been for two incredible shooting performances by Devin they'd have swept us. His injury made us look worse than we were but we were always outclassed by them.
Their offense anchored by Jokic worked like an oiled machine in Game 6, just awesome. When Murray also gets unleashed due to insufficient defense...
 

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