Devin Booker is a member of Kentucky’s seven strong 2015 NBA Draft class. (It would be eight if Alex Poythress had stayed healthy) Booker can really shoot the 3-ball, so he’ll be a prized pick for any team that prioritizes outside shooting.
Booker entered his one-and-done year in Lexington as the #3 rated shooting guard, #7 overall. He joins Trey Lyles (#2 power forward, #6 overall), Karl Towns a.k.a. Karl-Anthony Towns (#2 center, #9 overall) as ‘Cats following the “succeed and proceed” mantra to the draft.
Here’s the link to our latest NBA mock draft, and where we have Booker slotted.
9. Charlotte-Devin Booker, SG, Kentucky 6-6, Fr.
With the Hornets dealing Lance Stephenson and Gerald Henderson possibly a free agent, shooting guard is a huge need. Devin Booker is a sharpshooter from the outside and that was a glaring weakness for the team last season.
In this exclusive interview (podcast below) with Devin Booker, we talk about the prestige and the pressure of the Kentucky Wildcats program, the recruiting prowess of John Calipari And of course, the harsh critics of Coach Cal and Kentucky:
Devin Booker is a 6-5 product of Moss Point High School in Moss Point, Mississippi. He picked Kentucky over Michigan, Michigan State, Mizzou and Florida. You know how well Coach Cal develops guards.
Here are the highlights of what Calipari had to say to the media regarding the Devin Booker scouting report:
“Devin Booker and Moss Point, Mississippi. I saw him play in the Global Games in Washington, D.C., and he barely got off the bench on one of the regional teams that played. My concern for him was defensively. I knew he could shoot.”
“When we got him, my whole thing was, ‘You’re not going to be a standstill shooter. You’re going to create and go to the basket. You’re going to defend or you won’t play.’ He ended up being a much better defensive player than I ever imagined.”
“You don’t want to be a guy in that league that is a catch-and-shoot guy because they’ll take that away. In rotations, defensively, you have to be able to get it to the rim. You have to be able to finish when there’s contact. You create the contact and finish. We worked on all of that with him and he came so far, but has a ways to go with that. That’s what the NBA will clean up.”
“You’re talking about a big guard who can shoot, Klay Thompson-ish. That’s what he looks like. The league now is create a rotation defensively and take advantage of that rotation.”
A Klay Thompson comparison? Wow! Yes, it’s from his own college coach, but still it’s very high praise to be in the same conversation as one of the splash brothers.
Kentucky Wildcats NBA Draft profile series
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and writes The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with Fox Sports Digital. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes to the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. He also appears regularly on numerous sports talk radio stations all across the country.
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