Well personally regardless of whether they were running up the score to pad his stats or not I think whats impressive is Booker got 70 pts on just 40 shots. I think that is really good because in comparison someboy like Westbrick takes 35 shots just to get 40 pts in a game. What this means is Booker is actually good enough to deserve all thos extra poseessions, its not just a case of somebody giving him shots just to pad his stats. Considering his age it will be interesting how much he grows in the future.
Nah, I only responded out of curiosity but I'm indifferent on the whole deal, man. I just take exception to hot takes such as inditing Booker into the hall of fame because of this performance alone. I'm actually happy for the kid. The NBA needs more studs like this and it will only help the game of basketball moving forward. I'm still waiting to watch the entire game before giving my final take on it though. Not that anyone should care about what I think, though.
Agree, but you also have to see that nearly every single one of the point record games is tainted in that regard. These kinds of performances almost always happen because the team wants the guy to rack up points and get in the record books.
I'm not really impressed by him. True superstars like Lebron or Durant averaged over 30 points on good efficiency when they were close to 21, he is not even above league average offensive player at the moment. And there isn't 5 guards in the league that are worse on defense than him. Closest comparison is Beal(who was still better than Booker at 20) and Beal has been atrocious until this season(he is very good now, but not amazing or hall of fame).
You're dumb and any technology privileges you have should be revoked immediately. No current NBA player aside from him will ever score 70. Please book the next flight to South America and then proceed to Antarctica. Your lackluster analysis will not be missed.
In Wilt's 100-point performance, his team was up 19 points at the start of the 4th quarter, they were one of the top teams in the league playing against one of the worst teams in the league. Game was over at end of the third. Wilt played all 48 minutes. And that was an era where the competitive edge wasn't anywhere close to today's NBA. So you can stamp asterisks all over that performance. Just like you can any great scoring performance. Bottom line is this kid is twenty years old. Steph Curry? He was still at Davidson at this age and would be for another season. When you compare Booker and Steph, taking into consideration their age differences in their second seasons, Booker is comparable. Steph's shooting numbers were better but when you take a two-year age difference into account you should be able to see that Booker is developing very, very well. And we already knew Booker can shoot.....from distance. Give him two more years and he'll be punching up 42-44% from three. Curry and Booker are different players however. Booker is a 6-6 shooting guard who can dribble and distribute some. Curry is a true shooting point guard. So Curry has things in his distribution game that Booker doesn't have and may never have. But on the other hand Booker already has things in his game that Curry won't ever have because of their size difference. Booker is much more aggressive at drawing fouls at age 20 than Curry is right now at his zenith. The one skill that Booker has that makes him extra special in the Association is his ability to shoot on the move without necessarily planting his feet and squaring up and his ability to use the backboard from distance while on the move. Booker takes shots in the game that I used to experiment with when I was alone in the gym after practice. Those shots the coach and my teammates would refer to as trash shots, but they intrigued me so much because I knew when I used the backboard I could get them to go down with almost the same efficiency as a layup, accounting for a little fall off because of distance, but with stunningly more accuracy than trying to square up from 17 off the dribble. Booker will take, and make, the 7 to 17 foot floater on the move, and he'll use the backboard to get it down since the backboard provides so many better opportunities for the shot to go down, especially when you're moving and feet aren't set. In my day, coaches wouldn't even consider the possibilities with the backboard. But with today's technology and understanding of angles, etc., it's a matter of time before somebody somewhere takes the backboard to a whole nother level. And I think Booker is the one that's going to lead that evolution. He takes those running leaners from distance with regulatory, and knocks them down. Booker may already be the best backboard shooter in the Association. I'm convinced he is. And if he continues to develop his backboard shooting he's going to evolve the game another step as the kids start mimicking him the way they are Steph and Harden right now. He gets that shot way up high on the backboard, right in the hot spot, and it drops through. It's virtually impossible to block because of the angle coming off his fingers and He can get it off on the move after the bump and/or even fading away. There's simply no way to defend it without using multiple defenders and that's an automatic loser for defenses in the Association. The Suns lost last night? That's not on him. They're trying to lose. (The hypocrisy of Silver jumping playoff teams for resting players while turning a blind eye to lottery teams taking their starters out for the season to maximize ping pong balls. Pops, the genius, should call him out on that one.) If they had been going to Booker early in the first half, they'd probably have won the durn game with Booker going over 80. None of that is on Booker. He went out there and balled....against a very tough defensive unit headed to the playoffs. He wasn't playing against the Swiss cheese defenses that Wilt and Kobe were playing against. They couldn't stop him. And he did it efficiently, on a crap team, with little to no help. And he's 20. I thought he was too slow-footed coming out of UK to become even very good. I was wrong. He's going to be a great player.
Scoring 70 points in one game doesn't mean he is good NBA player. You don't have to comment if you are clueless about basketball. Harden never scored more than 26 points in his rookie season but he was still better than Booker is right now. Booker currently has the worst PER in NBA history amongst players above 28% usage rate and non-boxscore stats are even less kind to him since he is one of the worst defenders in the league.
Ha. He didn't. Started every game. Jumped center last two years as a 5-10 guard. I could outjump everyone on my team including our 6-6 clod-hopping center who played with two knee braces.
He reminded me of MJ last night, the way he got into the lane and sought out contact and had officials helping him every step of the way. Better shooter than MJ, plays a bit smaller in terms of one-on-one. People forget how much of MJ was built/scripted by the league office and the officials, buying into the "America wants a superstar, not competitive balance" BS. Jordan went years where every missed shot he got a foul call.
Why were the Celtics pissed?? If you knew the kid was after the scoring and stats padding then played some defense to stop him. Don't whine after the game after yourself didn't put in an effort.
Did you watch any of the game/recaps before making your posts or not?? Nobody is "arguing". It's just a discussion. Don't get your panties in a wad.
It's kind of like Westbrook's triple doubles. It's still impressive because the guy has to be good enough to do it. But the unnatural goal of stat-padding by the whole team just makes it a bit less honorable. I wonder how many players could score more than 50 points if the sole goal of the team was to get him the points.
