Devin Booker keeps rising in the Suns’ Record Books

In case you haven’t noticed, Devin Booker is off to the best season start of his career.

Booker seems destined to someday own many of the Suns franchise records... and he’s already close to some. If he plays his entire career in Phoenix (which I hope he does), virtually all of the career scoring records should be his and today I’d like to give you the details on where he stands on many of them and where he will likely end up by the end of this season.

First off, let’s talk about three-point shooting. That was after all what he was most touted for when he was drafted.

Threes

Four games into the 2022/23 season, Book is already on the verge of setting a new record for three-pointers made. In his previous 7 seasons he’s made 978 and averaged 139.7 made threes per season. He’s already added 12 treys this season (total now up to 990) and if his average holds for this season he will easily move past Steve Nash’s present franchise record of 1,051 to take the top spot in that category. This year he’s presently averaging 3.0 three-pointers made per game which is the highest single season average ever for a Sun.

Total Points

On total points scored, Book - now with 11,347 - still has a way to go to take the top spot away from Walter Davis (15,666) but if he just gets his career average on points scored this season (1,602), then he would jump from his current spot of 6th on the All-Time points leaders list to 3rd past Dick Van Arsdale (5th), Shawn Marion (4th) and Kevin Johnson (3rd). As Book has averaged 1,774.3 total points over his last 4 seasons, I doubt he will fail to accomplish this in 2022/23.

Points Per Game — Regular Season

Book’s current 23.59 ppg career average is already 2nd on the Suns’ All-Time leaders list, just behind Charlie Scott’s 24.82 ppg career average as a Sun. His 32.5 ppg average through the first four games of this season is #1 on the All-Time list for single season scoring average. While this will certainly be difficult to maintain, it’s well ahead of Tom Chambers’ full-season ppg average of 27.17 from 1990. Book also already owns the 3rd (2022), 4th (2020), 5th (2019) and 9th (2021) spots in the top 10 on this list.

Points Per Game — Playoffs

And although the playoffs are quite a way off, Book currently is also 2nd on the All-Time list of career points per game average with 26.06, just slightly less than a half point behind #1 Charles Barkley’s 26.52 career ppg in the playoffs. I’m looking forward to seeing if he can surpass Barkley’s mark this year.

Assists

Book’s a good facilitator too. He’s already 9th on the Suns’ All-Time assist leaders board with 2,251 for his career and has averaged 317.3 assists per season. If that average holds this year, he would jump past Dick Van Arsdale (8th), Paul Westphal (7th) and Jeff Hornacek (6th) on that list by season’s end.

Steals

Even when you look at stats that Devin isn’t normally praised for, his name is already etched in the Suns record books in those categories too. Book is 21st in career steals as a Sun with 403. If he just keeps to his career per season average of 57.6, he’ll end this season at 15th. In rebounds, he’s 27th with 1,877 and could easily wind up 22nd by the end of the year. Even in blocks Devin is in the Suns’ top 50 at #42 with 129 and could move up as high as 33rd.

Without a doubt, Devin Booker is a great player and will continue to move up the ladders in many career statistical categories in the Phoenix Suns’ record books. That’s great for him but what’s best for us fans is that we get to sit back and watch him continue to write his own chapter in Suns history during every game he plays.

And one record I really hope to see Devin eventually break is Alvan Adams’ record for the most seasons played for the Suns (13).