Pull up Basketball-Reference.com (don’t tell me what to do) and look up your top-10 favorite players or what you believe the top-10 players of all-time. It’s beautiful isn't it? Scrolling down to the Per Game stats and seeing the superstar bloom? I usually don’t like asking the imaginary reader questions, but in this case, just making sure I am tickling your chin hair on this one. Whatever kind of human-being you are, if you watched your favorite player grow, the progression of the stats year-by-year can be breathtaking.
If you could, you would be in the gym with them, watching the growth. Observing the panic and pressure they put into ever practice until pieces of the game become simple. Like watching your kids grow, you want to be involved as much as possible (unless things get tough and you just get the hell out of there). That's the beauty, you don't need to change the boys diapers, you just need to make sure that are switching out condoms in-between breaks. Even then, that is something you can't control with these players.
Control is the issue. With a mind of their own, NBA players will wander from one team to another when they want and if you are insecure and have control issues, like we all do, then the NBA will drive you mad.
The growth of Booker from year one until now (year five) is voluptuous. Every curve of every stat is full and jaw-dropping. Steph Curry, the same. Bradley Beal, same. Klay Thompson, exacto. Players need time and Booker was afforded the opportunity on the Suns teams that called it quits by now. But not this year. No, this year is till the death. Until game 82 is buzzed over.
Who else needed time to develop? Dwight Howard. Only maybe three years to become dominant, but it took time. Kevin Garnett, an all-star in his second year, still didn’t hit his massive leap in potential until year five.
I am finishing this “blog” or “article” after DeAndre Ayton's 26-21 game against the New York Knicks, uncapping his ceiling, but that may not be consistent this year or even the next. It will take a few years for his max potential to be shown.
With Booker showing that the game is now easier than ever for him, it will be frustrating for him to deal with the inconsistency of Ayton. Ayton doesn't have the time, but he should. Suns fans were shown what a man Ayton is against the Knicks. That is what Booker has been waiting for, but will he wait one or two more years until the screws in Aytons head get tightened even more?
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