I was a Bender / Murray guy.
Still think Bender could have had a much better start to his career if he had been drafted by a decent organization.
Murray looks absolutely great at times, but at other times he slumps hard.
Remains to be seen if he ends up better than Jaylen.
My opinion on the matter is basically the same as before they were drafted ... Jaylen has better physical tools, but it's a lot easier for guys to earn starting roles with high usage in the NBA if they are good at navigating a pick and roll and can create pull up jumpers, especially from 3. Murray has the easier path to star-caliber production than Jaylen.
Does that mean Booker would be even better if drafted by a better organization. Is is possible that Bender is not as good or didn't want it as bad? Every player has to work on their game....or is the organizations fault?
No doubt, Booker's development was arguably more negatively affected than Bender's. The last two years were an absolute disgrace. Trying to make him a primary ballhandler/playmaker. Giving him way too much to do on offense, way too many ball-handling responsibilities. Booker must have played maybe 30 minutes of defense in his last 100 games. Increasing the share of 2 point jumpshots in his shot-selection - in his 4 years in the league, the percentage of 10-16 ft shots has increased every year. Percentage of triples has actually declined.
He was a magnificent cutter out of college - but he handles the ball so much, This season he shot 32% from 3. Atrocious for a guy who had Rip Hamilton/Reggie Miller talent at floppy action squaring up.
Booker is so talented he still managed to increase his overall efficiency and scoring volume in spite of this, but there's a lot left on the table. He plays dumb basketball and if Phoenix was a more competitive team, I'd expect his numbers to decline as he'd face tighter defenses more time.
Booker should be developed with Ray Allen from the Bucks/Sonics as the model; instead they've been developing him as Kobe Bryant or LeBron James and that makes him a worse player.
Big organizational failure.
