2 years and 150 million yuan will be renewed early? Is Booker worth it now?

Booker's two-year, 150 million contract renewal seems to be unable to escape.

The latest report from the Suns Duane Rankin, the four-time All-Star Booker is expected to sign a two-year, 150 million yuan contract renewal with the Suns. The contract will take effect in 2028 and expire in 2030.

It should be noted that more than one reporter has reported similar news during the offseason, including Marc Stein (April), Chris Haynes (July), and new reporter Ary (July).

Although the boss Shams has not spoken yet, so many reporters reported at the same time, it is somewhat credible. It should be said that starting today, Booker can officially sign this contract renewal, and the deadline is October 21.

Booker's current contract has three seasons left, with salary of 53.14 million, 57.08 million, and 61.02 million respectively. That is to say, if this early renewal is signed, Booker's total salary in the next five years will reach 320 million. What is the roughly concept of

? Booker's former teammate Durant has been in his career for 18 seasons, and the total salary in the first 15 seasons is only 307 million yuan. Booker only needs 5 years to earn Durant's salary in the first 15 years of his career.

Of course, the salary cap has been rising, especially after 2016, so only comparing the total salary, young stars will definitely have a more advantage over old stars.

However, the question that should be asked will definitely not be eliminated: Is Booker worth this contract renewal now?

If this question is in 2021 or 2022, the answer may be without suspense. Booker had just led the team to the finals, and in the second year he led the team to win the best team in the team's history by 64. He was also selected as the best team and ranked fourth on the MVP list.

The fact is that Booker's existing contract (total amount of 224 million in 4 years) was signed in 2022, and it was also completed two seasons ahead of schedule. At that time, not many people thought Booker was worth it.

, but it is really hard to say about the same problem now.

We will remember that last summer, when Booker helped the US men's basketball team win the Olympic gold medal, he thought Booker's transformation to 3D on Jendouluku was a huge success.

However, after the start of the NBA season, Booker did not seem to have returned to the scorer from a 3D character. After the first 15 games, Booker actually scored only 20 points in 6 games.

The data he handed over was: 75 games, averaging 25.6 points, 4.1 rebounds, 7.1 assists per game, the lowest score since 2018, and the efficiency was not outstanding enough. His three shooting percentage was 46.1%/33.2%/89.4%, and his real shooting percentage was 58.9%.

As a comparison, Booker in the past two seasons:

-22-23 season, averaged 27.8 points per game, 60.1% of the real shooting percentage, 27.1 points per game, and 61.1% of the real shooting percentage, in terms of personal offense, Booker has not continued his strength in the previous two years. His shooting number and usage rate are the lowest in recent years. However, Booker's pass level has indeed reached the best in his career.

has the most assists per game, and only 2.9 turnovers. The assists and turnovers are not higher than 2.4, but it is much better than the 6.8 assists and 4.1 turnovers that started the transformation in the 18-19 season.

This is also a relatively failure of the Suns last season. It is clearly a point guard Tyers Jones. As a result, the latter can only pass the safe ball and do not have the ability to tear the opponent's defense line, the Suns can only let Booker take on this role.

Booker + Bill + Jones, the combination of these three backcourts did not achieve good results. Over the whole season, the Suns' offensive efficiency was only 114.7, ranking 13th in the league, and the defensive efficiency was 117.7, ranking 27th in the league.

Note a data. When Durant, Booker and Bill are on the court at the same time, the Suns lost 4.1 points in a hundred rounds, and the total salary of the three players reached 150 million. It turns out that they are like this. It’s no wonder that Budenholzer was dismissed in one season (it’s not entirely blamed Budenholzer, after all, the cards are just like that, but no matter what, as a champion coach, this is too bad).

Among them, when Booker was on the court, the Suns' net efficiency was only -3.2, which is the first time that Booker was on the court in the past six seasons, the Suns' net efficiency was negative. In the previous five seasons, the numbers were +5.8, +6.2, +9.5, +7.2, and +2.7 respectively.

Pure personal point of view, Booker's offensive ability is still online. A season's decline is not enough to erase the stable performance of the past several seasons. He is still one of the most threatening scorers in active service.

The main problem is that the Sun's use of Booker is not right. Everyone knows that Booker is more suitable as an ending point. The previous successful experience of partnering with Paul is enough to illustrate this point. However, in the past two years, Paul has left and Bill has arrived, and his role has to undergo some changes. Judging from the results, this change is obviously not successful.

Considering that Booker is currently only 28 years old, has performed in the past few years, has been working in the Sun for ten years, and his salary cap will continue to rise in the future, I personally think that 320 million yuan in five years is actually worth it.

But, is the contract renewed for 150 million for 2 years three years in advance? This is a big risk.

If it is a player like Jokic and Antetokounmpo, there is absolutely no problem with renewing the contract three years in advance, but Booker is obviously not a player of this level. After leaving Durant and Bill (say he is going to buy out), what level can he play can only be known until the start of the new season - don't forget that before joining forces with Paul, Booker has never even made the playoffs, and has only had an All-Star experience. Even though his career has been so far, he has only entered the Best Team twice.

The Suns do this, which is to imagine that on the one hand, want to build Booker into a team totem, and on the other hand, the long-term contract locks Booker's peak, may also create greater trading value in the future (similar to the Nets' contract renewal and then sell Durant), but Booker is not Durant, and the risk of renewal is too high.

From Booker's perspective, if the Suns give him a big contract, they will definitely have to get it. No one will be able to get the money. However, his performance last season did not reach the level of renewing the contract three years ahead of schedule - whether he signed this contract or not, next season, I hope to see a better Booker, the best team that year, not to be a flash in the pan.