Should Suns' Devin Booker finally make All-NBA? Here's what media, which votes for team, says

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CLEVELAND — Draymond Green’s face turned up like Lil’ Jon at the question.

“Book? Of course. Of course Book is an All-NBA player,” said the Warriors' All-Star forward and two-time All-NBA selection. “With his improvement, you’ve kind of seen it since he came into the league where he always had the numbers. And now the winning is following that. If Book’s not an All-NBA player, then who is?

Preach.

“With the last month or month and a half of basketball that he’s played, I’m not even sure how his name hasn’t crept up in the MVP conversation, but All-NBA, like, that’s a no-brainer,” Green added.

It clearly wasn’t for Devin Booker last season.

He and Utah’s Donovan Mitchell were only two of 45 players since the NBA-ABA merger in 1976 to average at least 25 points on a team that had the league’s best or second-best record in the regular season and not make All-NBA first or second team.

So The Arizona Republic asked media representatives to break down what an All-NBA player looks like to them and where Booker falls into that this season.

All-NBA is determined by a media-only vote.

Early in his career, Booker constantly heard he had numbers, but was on a losing team.

Last season, Booker won big as the Suns had the league’s second best-record, led them in scoring at 25.6 points game, but no All-NBA.

A global media panel of 100 sportswriters and broadcasters voted Stephen Curry (Warriors) and Luka Doncic (Mavericks) first team, Damian Lillard (Blazers) and Chris Paul (Suns) second team and Bradley Beal (Wizards) and Kyrie Irving (Nets) third team last season.

FYI 1: The voting is based on regular season, not postseason.

This season, Booker is averaging 25.5 points, is an improved defender, the Suns boast the NBA’s best record at 48-10 and have a 6½ game lead over the Warriors (42-17).

To Green’s MVP point, Booker averaged 28.2 points, 6.1 rebounds and four assists in January and is averaging 27.1 points on 46.4% shooting so far in February.

The Suns are 21-2 during this stretch with their now three-time All-Star turning his game up even more.

So All-NBA this season, right?

Booker’s not so sure about that.

“If you look at the past in how All-NBA has worked, I mean, the winning team, especially when it’s this substantial, gets a few guys in there,” Booker said. “The numbers are there. So, it’s up to the media, though. In the past, I’ve usually had more respect from players than the media.”

Stats and winning are a good place to start, but there’s usually more to it than that for voters.

Much more.

The media members The Republic polled are listed in alphabetical order with an asterisk (*) beside their name if they voted last year.

*Tim Bontemps, ESPN

"I look at it from a few angles. A lot of it comes down to production on the court, obviously, but I also think there's at least some component of it that is team-based.

"In Devin's case, he obviously checks both boxes.

"The thing people have to remember is that there are only 15 All-NBA spots, and only six of them are guards. That's a really small pool. And there are a ton of guys to choose from, including Devin, Chris Paul, Ja Morant, Stephen Curry, Trae Young, Luka Doncic, Jrue Holiday, Donovan Mitchell and Zach LaVine — and that's just off the top of my head without even looking at anything.

"So, in short, Devin is definitely in consideration for me, but it's a really tough group to get into."

2021 All-NBA guard vote: 1st team: Curry, Lillard. 2nd team: Paul, Doncic. 3rd team: Irving, Beal. 

*Vincent Goodwill, Yahoo! Sports

“The margins are very thin. It’s not just production, because it can be empty numbers. It’s not just winning, because you could be on a winning team. It’s a combination of the two. And it’s also, ‘Are you one of the six best guards in basketball’ with your performance. That shouldn’t be affected by your teammates or a Chris Paul.”

2021 All-NBA guard vote: 1st team: Curry, Lillard. 2nd team: Doncic, Irving. 3rd team: Paul, Paul George.

*Mark Medina, NBA.com

“All the normal criteria: Numbers. Consistency. Eye test with watching games. What scouts/execs/coaches say. Impact on the team. One last point: Don’t want to just reward players on winning team, but more measure what his impact is on the team and how different the team is without him. Never easy, but I try to handle it case-by-case.”

2021 All-NBA guard vote: 1st team: Curry, Paul. 2nd team: Jimmy Butler, Lillard. 3rd team: James Harden, Beal.

*Melissa Rohlin, FOX Sports

“I would say a combination of pouring over stats, watching as many games as possible, talking to as many scouts as possible and trying to account for X-factors.”

2021 All-NBA guard vote: 1st team: Curry, Doncic. 2nd team: Lillard, Paul. 3rd team: Harden, Beal.

Michael Scotto, HoopsHype

“An All-NBA player is an All-Star who affects winning at a high level for a playoff team. This type of player has elite skills and is considered one of the best players at his position.”

Marc J. Spears, ESPN’s The Undefeated

“Without question D. Booker is an All-NBA guard, which means he’s in the top six guards in this league. It’s a very tough category to get in because there are so many extremely talented guards in the NBA. A lot of what Devin Booker does either goes unnoticed or doesn’t get the respect it deserves for whatever reason, which I have not been able to figure out. He’s an elite NBA player no question.”

Mark Stein, publisher of The Stein Line Substack

“All-NBA is impossible. I don’t miss voting for it one bit and it’s probably even harder to do now than it was when I last voted because stat lines are so gaudy in this era of offensive explosion. So many guys putting up such big numbers these days, they aren’t easily separated by what the stats say. You’ve got to go deeper.

I last voted in 2016-17 (working for ESPN) and basically applied the same principles to All-NBA selections as I did to MVP voting. The goal, to me, was trying to reward the 15 players who I had deemed to be the best seasons using an imprecise mixture of statistical production, team success and gut-feel whim to break ties. I used to agonize over it and I think that’s one reason why the league wants writers doing it. Because they know many will agonize over every selection.”

*Brian Windhorst, ESPN

“Whenever I have to break a tie, I consider how much a player’s team asks of him. How many different roles does he have to play? Does he have to create and score? Does he have to be the vocal leader as well as the star. Does he have to work on D? In short, how big is his left every night?

"I can remember once or twice giving Westbrook the nod over another player for this reason because of whatever you think of him, what he had to do for his team every single night was immense.”

2021 All-NBA guard vote: 1st team: Curry, Doncic. 2nd team: Paul, Lillard. 3rd team: Beal, Butler.

*Michael C. Wright, NBA.com

“For me, there are really no hard-and-fast rules, but the biggest thing I look at is the player’s impact on winning. Book checks the box in that category.”

2021 All-NBA guard vote: 1st team: Curry, Doncic. 2nd team: Lillard, Paul. 3rd team: Harden, Irving.

Dan Woike, Los Angeles Times

“For me, it's a combination of individual performance with team achievement added in. But the individual numbers come first, for me. The goal is to come up with three teams that someone could look back on 20 years later and see the story of that season come through as clearly as possible.”

"Keep in mind only six backcourt players are chosen for All-NBA in a guard-driven league, but since Booker’s rookie season of 2015-16, five players have accounted for 22 of the 36 guard selections."

5: Russell Westbrook, Curry and Lillard.

4: James Harden.

3: Paul.

2: DeMar DeRozan. Doncic and Irving.

1: Klay Thompson, Isaiah Thomas, Kyle Lowry, John Wall, Victor Oladipo, Kemba Walker, Ben Simmons and Beal.

The All-Star voting addresses how players and media view Booker.

Fans, current players, and a media panel determine All-Star starters, an honor Booker didn’t receive this year despite being the leading scorer on the team with the league’s top record.

Booker has finished higher in the player voting than media or fan voting the last two times.

2020 – Players (4th), Media (4th), Fans (8th)

2021 – Players (4th), Media (5th), Fans (5th)

2022 – Players (3rd), Media (4th), Fans (5th)

Looks like the fans, who account for 50% of the starter votes, have even less respect for Booker. The players and media each account for 25% of the voting.

The thing is, everyone has their own criteria when it comes to determining who is the elite of the NBA’s elite whether he or she has a vote or not.

Have opinion about current state of the Suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at dmrankin@gannett.com or contact him at 480-787-1240. Follow him on Twitter at @DuaneRankin.