The Suns will meet with star guard Devin Booker to discuss a rookie scale extension, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN tweets. The meeting, which will include franchise owner Robert Sarver, general manager Ryan McDonough, Booker, and Booker’s agent Leon Rose, will take place on Tuesday.
Booker has been pegged as a potential max player for a while now, and Wojnarowski reiterates that the star guard a strong candidate to procure the highest deal he’s eligible for when the time comes.
While there had been reports that Booker wasn’t pleased with the Suns’ lack of communication when they waived close friend Tyler Ulis, Scott Bordow of The Arizona Republic tweets that it likely won’t impact Booker’s desire to remain with the team long-term.
In his third season, the 21-year-old Booker averaged 24.9 points, 4.5 rebounds and 4.7 assists per game. Now heading into his fourth, he’ll be joined by the deepest supporting cast of his career, with Phoenix having reached an agreement to sign Trevor Ariza after adding Deandre Ayton and Mikal Bridges in the draft.
Although the exact amount that Booker will be eligible to make in 2019/20 and beyond won’t be set until next season’s cap figures are revealed, a max deal would be worth 25% of the cap. With the current cap projection for 2019/20 set at $109MM, that would result in a $158MM deal over the course of five seasons.
The parties would also have the freedom to negotiate a clause that would allow Booker to earn as much as 30% of the cap in the event that he qualifies for an All-NBA team in 2019. Such was the case with the deal between the Sixers and Joel Embiid, who would have received a 30% max if he had earned a spot on the All-NBA First Team — he narrowly missed out.
Booker and the Suns will have until the day before the 2018/19 regular season begins to reach an agreement on a rookie scale extension. If they don’t come to terms, Booker will be on track to become a restricted free agent next summer.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Can’t argue with his improvements. Except for FT% (84, 83, 87 so not YoY but from 1 to 3 yes) and TOV (2.1, 3.1, 3.6 gotten worse) he has improved year over year – Pts, Ast, Trb, Fg% 3pt%, Stl, VORP, BPM, WS, PER.
Really don’t know what the Suns actual plan is. 15M to Ariza was pointless.
Traded for Bridges when they have Warren.
Traded Bledsoe when they needed a PG b/c Knight has been out.
Wonder what it would take to pry Warren away. I’d even take on Chandler to keep the compensation down. – Sixers Plan C
Pg(?), Booker, Ariza, Jackson, Ayton
Warren, Bridges, Knight, Chandler, etc off the bench…
Knight will be the starting PG.
Knight hasnt played in 2 years really.
Still don’t understand paying all that for Ariza.
There defense was awful last year. He will help with that also hes a veteran to help guide these young players.
I would wait to extend him. He needs to be better defensively, and they can keep that much more space open for next year
Mikal and Ariza will make him look more mortal in comparison. Booker may not be popular with center Ayton who has to wait for the ball. But Ayton’s a rookie, happy to be there, so maybe he won’t be able to tell.
If Phoenix could trade Booker to Orlando for Jona.Isaac, who plays the same position as re-signed Gordon, they should. Not that I think it will happen.
Huh? You must be an Orlando fan. Why the hate on Booker? He’s shown improvement in almost every category 3 years in a row. He can become a better defensive player with coaching and effort. I don’t think has shown anything that he’ll be an impact offensive player.
He’s the quickest shot on a bad team, his defense ranks 99 of 110 in +/- (37th overall), him and Ayton are a personality mismatch… that last can be worked with by letting Ayton launch 3s too, and other things… but D, I doubt that comes around… he needs to change his whole approach. He’s good, but will be magnetized to the max figure which will seem too much before very long.
Because what’s another forward in Phoenix…
Well I must say Kobe at 21 didn’t have anywhere near the numbers Booker puts up, specially never was the shooter Booker is, & Booker is a better passer & can play PG which Kobe couldn’t. I am not saying Booker will be better, which he might, but man x%sure, you sure don’t like him. I think he is a very exciting, very good player, so all the Orlando roster put together ain’t good enough to get Booker, I would give him the max at the first minute that you can.