Every Player Should Pay Attention To What Devin Booker Just Did

So obviously the Olympics just ended with the United States winning gold medal over France. And a lot of people have called this United States team the best team of all time, the best Olympic team of all time. I've heard names like the supreme team and obviously LeBron called them the Avengers afterwards. There's the Dream Team, Redeem team. What's this team? The Avengers. Okay? And obviously we look at that top tier group that the US has with LeBron, Steph, KD, guys who are obviously legends. And at the end of the day, like Steph went off the last two games. LeBron was consistent the whole time. Three won the MVP and Kevin Durant had some massive moments after missing all the exhibition games. And so you look at those guys and you see how they contribute to winning. But then Steve Kerr talked about afterwards how Devin Booker was the unsung hero, the unsung MVP of this United States team. And I actually couldn't agree more with that. And I want to talk about exactly what that is. So I'm going to try and put in some clips of Devin Booker from the Olympics. We'll see how NBC feels about that. So if not, I'll just put in some clips of him with the Suns. I was talking about this on my Instagram story yesterday. Devin Booker in this Olympic setting with this team is the best 3 and D player that we've ever seen. Like the performance of a 3 and D player, he did it better than anybody we've ever seen at any level. And I want to talk about exactly what that means and for you as a player, what that can look like. And then another takeaway that I kind of have, that's more of a big picture. So obviously Devin Booker is a guy who's getting paid max contract money in the NBA to be a dude, to be a go to guy. If you watch him play in the regular season, he's very much ball dominant. He's using ball screens, he's isoing, he's taking a lot of shots, a lot of a bunch of different shots. Mid range floaters to the rim, threes off the dribble, off the catch. He's doing all that. The offense runs through him a lot of the times. And so there was a tweet from, I think it was Kyle Kuzma and he was talking about how, you know the US Team like for this next cycle, this is, I don't remember when this was maybe a year ago, maybe a couple years ago. But he talked about how the US needs to look to add role players, guys who are willing to play a role. And Devin Booker, quote, tweeted it and said, I'll do it. And it was actually really insane to see the difference, right? We watched Devin Booker during the Olympics, and he was defending at a really high level. And obviously, we know that he shot the ball. He shot 56% from three. So those two things he did at an elite level. But outside of even the 3 and D portion of that, what really made him special was his willingness to make the right play, which a lot of times resulted in passes. He made some of the most beautiful extra passes that I've ever watched. And he was not only a willing passer, but he was like a generous passer to the point where, like, he'd catch it and he would know, like, okay, that guy's got a better shot than me, or he's more open than me. And he'd swing it, or he'd even say, oh, or that's Steph Curry, or that's Kevin Duranta. Give him the ball. And he would do that. He would get guys wide open looks, wide open lanes or angles to drive at. And it was completely because he was focused on playing his role and excelling in his role. So what we saw in the Olympics was him take a step back and do significantly less than he's capable. Capable of doing. But he did it because he understood the importance of his role. And again, when you look at how great he was in some of these games and you look at the efficiency he played with, you can argue they probably don't win a gold medal without Devin Booker. Right? Even though all the attention is going to go to the guys who are the leading scorers, the guys who the offense runs through, the guys who are making, you know, the highlight plays and book was catch and shoot and defend and make the right play. And because he was willing to do that, he contributed to what is arguably the best team of all time. So what can we take away from this? What can you take away from this as a player? Number one, is we have to understand that not everybody's going to be able to emulate Steph Curry or emulate LeBron or emulate KD. Right? These are generational talents, and not everybody's going to. Not necessarily even match that, obviously, but, like, even have that same role. Right? You're only going to have, like, a guy or maybe two on every team that's gonna have a role that, you know, is gonna run through them, or they're gonna have the ball and be able to do what they Want to do a lot of the times. And when you look at it contrasting that with Book, every team needs guys who can defend and make shots and be okay with the fact that you might not get the shots for this game, you might not get the shots consistently, right? With Book, he was okay with not getting the shots, but when he did get the shots, he made them right? So that's that. First thing is you have to be okay with that fact. But then the next thing is the two things that you've got to be able to do are make perimeter shots and defend your position. If you can do those at a high level, you all of a sudden have a lot of opportunities to play and impact winning. And we can look at more than just Book for this, right? You look at someone like Drew Holiday, who started a bunch of games, and, you know, if you look at just the entire scope of the NBA and American players, is Jrue Holiday one of the five most talented? Maybe not right? But again, the role that he plays, he's an elite defender and he can shoot the basketball. And because of that, he was incredibly valuable to this Olympic team because he played that role really well. Another guy like Derrick White, right? Derek White's a late replacement for Kawhi Leonard. And people saw that initially, they're like, oh, why is Derrick White getting that spot? How did Jalen Brown not get the spot? But then you watch Derrick White play, and obviously he didn't play a ton down the stretch, but, you know, in the exhibition games and obviously pool play and early on in the Olympics, he was playing a lot of minutes. It was because he was doing a great job defending. Obviously, he's a great rim protector as a guard as well. So he's just really on every level of defense. He was great and he was making catch and shoot threes, and that's enough to get you in the floor. Even though you. You can look at Derrick White and say, well, you know, he's not this, he's not that. He played his role at such a high level that he had to be on the floor over some guys who are paid more than him, who are more talented than him, who, you know are more decorated, have more accolades than he does. He played over those guys because of how great he was at his role. And so I think as a player, if you can get really, really good at defending your position and making open shots, it's going to open up everything for you, right? It's going to open up everything for you, make you incredibly valuable to any team that you play on the next thing is the number one thing you should be concerned with as a player is making the right play. So many players go out there and they're focused on, okay, how many points am I going to score today? You know, it's the second quarter and I haven't scored yet. So now I got to start to really, like, you know, press a little bit about it. Oh, it's a third quarter and I've only scored six points. I don't know what I'm going to do. As opposed to judging yourself based on, did I make the right play? Okay, did I make a good pass there? Did I set my teammate up well? Did I take the shot when it was my time to take the shot, right when I was open and it was a good look, did I take it? And I have to kind of detach myself from the results of that and judge myself based on did I make the right play. Book is going to get credited with obviously shooting really well from the perimeter and defending, but people aren't really talking about how great he was when it came to making the right decision when the decision was to pass the ball, which he did a lot. And for a guy who again, is used to the offense running through him, his willingness and his generosity, like I said earlier as a passer, was really, really incredible. And it's something that every player can take from. So understanding that the two most important things you'll be able to do are make perimeter shots, make open perimeter shots and play defense. Defend your position at a high level. Understanding that, and then the next part, which is be okay with and prioritize making the right play, making the right decision, whether or not that means that you're the high scorer or you're the. You're not the high score. Right? Prioritize what you can do to contribute to winning and you're rewarded for it. Right? This Olympic potentially changes how people view Devin Booker going forward. And they view his value going forward forward because they saw his ability to take a step back, play a role at a high level. And ultimately what it came down to is that the United States team was the most talented team in this tournament. And it especially helps when your main 3 and D guy is a guy who's been an all NBA player, a guy who is again getting paid to be the guy, you know, one of two guys on his NBA team, and that's been his experience and he's willing to take a step back. And now you have at that role a way more talented player than any other country could throw out there. Okay. And so really, that's my takeaways from a player perspective. I also wanted to add in, too, something that I really started to think about with this whole thing when it comes to a coaching perspective, something that I see a lot, which is coaches get so caught up in having players fit a role for them or having players fit their offense. Right. I work with players now who, you know, with their AAU team or, you know, their school team. In the offseason, they'll be practicing three or four times a week in, you know, you know, July, August, and they'll tell me how their coaches will not let them develop other parts of their game. Like if they were, you know, playing the five the past season, their coaches only giving them reps there or only letting them work on skills there, and they're not allowed to develop any other parts of their game. And a lot of times this is because coaches don't want players to. They feel like if they have players who can do other things, then they're going to do other things. They're not going to do their role that the team needs them to do. I think that that's the wrong way of looking at it. I think ultimately, again, we talk about the Team usa, the reason that they won, the reason that they were, you know, able to get a goal, is because they had the most talent and they were able to have talent that bought into the role that they had. So you have both. You have Devin Booker, who's insanely talented, could be a guy you can run the offense through, and you might still be able to win a goal, but he's willing to take a step back and play his role at a super high level. And now all of a sudden, you have the most skilled players as role guys, massively increases your likelihood of winning games. And so I think for coaches, the shift needs to go to how do I create the most skilled players possible and then find ways to adapt them into the role that they need to be able to play for that season. And that's going to do a couple things. First of all, it's going to allow you to have players who can be better problem solvers. Right? Because you as a coach, you're not always going to be able to script everything. Things are not always going to go to plan. At the end of the day, when you need somebody to make a play, when you know that everybody on the court is skilled and can do it, it's much more likely that somebody's going to make a positive Play for you. So in the offseason, everybody should be working on everything, right? You should have your fives working on their ball handling, on their shooting, and you should have, you know, your, your guards working on post ups and working on finishing, all that sort of stuff. And you should have players who are incredibly versatile, incredibly adaptable. And then the next part to that is being able to build relationships to the point where you can help players buy in, right? So you give them the tools, you help them, you know, develop other parts of their game and, and become a highly skilled player. And then you're able to, to communicate with them. Hey, we need you to play this role, right? Your role is not going to be to have the ball in your hands a ton. Your role is going to be, you know, to be a floor spacer, to play great defense, to make the right play. And this is why, and a lot of times the kind of the, the, it's almost backwards, players are more likely to, to buy into that because you've already given them the tools, right? You've given them the ability to develop even more. And they don't feel like they're forced into this. They don't feel like they're boxed in because my coach only lets me work on this and I can't do anything else. So now I have to do this, I have to play this role. As opposed to your coach giving you tools to develop other parts of your game and then you being able to really buy in and say, you know what, like this is what I can do to be able to help the team. And I know that my coach cares about not, not just the team, but he cares about my development too, because he's helped me develop other parts of my game. And you get better buy in from your players when you know that you care about them and their own development as a player, not just development of the team, especially the offseason, obviously in season, this is a completely different topic. And the way that you're going to prepare your team is going to be different. But in the offseason, developing guys to become as skilled as possible, that's what leads to gold medal wins. When you have incredible, incredibly skilled players who also are willing to buy in and play a certain role needed to win. So one of my biggest takeaways from this, you know, past Olympics, I think one of the awesome things that we saw is, you know, obviously the world is. The world is. We've been saying it forever, but the world is catching up. And I think this year we've seen it more than any other year. You know, there's a lot that is, is on the, you know, on the upswing for a lot of different countries out there. And, and obviously, you know, for the US We've seen it like the, the guys who, who won this year, right? Especially those, those vets like LeBron and Steph. Like, you saw like the, like, how much they cared, how much it meant to them because, like, it's not a cakewalk. Like, there's a lot of really, really talented countries out there, and that's only going to continue to be more of a thing. So I know about a lot of, a lot of followers, a lot of subscribers who are from all over the world. And so it's really awesome to see how great basketball is around the world. And obviously, like, I think I speaking for myself, being able to just watch this version of basketball has really been a lot of fun. So I'm excited for, you know, what's going to happen in 2028 when we're back in Los Angeles for the Olympics. And obviously a lot of moving pieces with a lot of teams right there, but a lot of really good stuff, and it's going to continue to become even more of a global game right there. So I appreciate you for watching. I know I talked a lot about being willing to make the right play, and a lot of that comes down to IQ and your understanding of the game. So if you click the top link down below, you'll get access to my free Basketball IQ masterclass. It's an hour long and we go through a lot of the stuff that goes into making the right play, being able to score consistently, make plays for your teammates consistently, mindsets that you need to be a great player and so much more. Like, it'll completely transform how you look at the game of basketball and just in general how you play and your success that you have on the court. So top link in the description down below, completely free. Go ahead and check that out. I appreciate you for watching. Talk soon. Peace.