• Slug: Sports-Suns Summer, 728 words.
• With photos

By Logan Newman
Cronkite News

PHOENIX — As the Phoenix Suns tried to secure the best possible pick in this summer’s NBA draft, the player who is now the “face of the franchise” was on the bench against the Sacramento Kings.

It wasn’t the first time Devin Booker had been pulled for playing too well. During the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas the then-19-year-old played only two games before the Suns’ staff realized he didn’t need to play there.

“Devin Booker obviously dominated summer league,” head coach Earl Watson said at the team’s exit day last week, when the coaching staff and player personnel staff give players a plan for their off-season.

Despite Booker’s showing, in which he ranked second in the league in points (26.0) and assists (6.5) per game, Booker said he didn’t set any expectations for himself heading into the recently completed regular season.

“I never set any expectations,” he said. “I just come here with a mindset of winning and being competitive.”

While summer leagues typically aren’t a good indicator of how well a team will perform in the real season – the Suns, for instance, were in the 2015 championship game and the semifinals in 2016 – forward Jared Dudley said it’s a good way to measure progress of young players.

““I think it can’t project seasons just because those guys are just the best of the young guys,” he said. “Over summer league, you see after a rookie season how much someone like (Dragan) Bender or Marquese (Chriss) (developed).”

In that same Kings game to end the regular season, the Suns played four rookies – Tyler Ulis, who was a second-round pick; Derrick Jones Jr., who was undrafted, Bender and Chriss, plus second-year player Alan Williams, who had played in only 10 games during the 2015-16 season.

It looked like a summer league roster, with only two players over the age of 24 receiving time. But like summer league, the Suns were using it as an opportunity to evaluate young talent. For the most part, the team’s young players performed in real games as well as they did in those summer league contests.

Williams provided a glimpse of his potential in Las Vegas as the only player to average a double-double while leading the summer league in rebounding with 11.2 per game.

“Big Al showed that even in summer league, when (he’s) protecting the paint … it can translate into the regular season,” Watson said.

After the benching of veteran Tyson Chandler at the All-Star break, Williams began seeing more minutes. He registered 12 double-doubles in his final 24 games.

“That’s always been the goal, it’s something I’ve done my whole career,” Williams said. “It’s something I kind of focus on and it has a big effect on the game so I felt if I was able to do that, I’d be able to get some playing time.”

He’ll spend another offseason as an unrestricted free agent. However, this time will be different than in the past. In 2015 he went undrafted and eventually signed to play in China, and in March 2016, he signed a contract with the Suns for the remainder of that year and the full of 2017.

Williams has significantly increased his value with his production in the regular season. And last season, the asking price for centers was high, with Timofey Mozgov getting $64 million over four years from the Lakers and Joakim Noah getting $72 million over the same amount of time in Chicago.

Williams said he’s only just beginning to think about his contractual goals, but said he doesn’t play for the money. He loves the game and just tries to work hard and “be the best teammate I can be.”

The money doesn’t hurt, though.

“Of course, there’s a financial backing for (playing),” he said. “If you can maximize that you definitely should.”

Ulis took his opportunity as a starter to show the league he was better than someone who can only compete with summer league players. The second-round draft pick averaged the third-most assists in Las Vegas.

“A lot of people thought he just dominates summers,” Watson said.

He said that Ulis was “banged up” during the regular season, but once he healed and got starter minutes, he was able to show his talents.

“I always had faith in my game,” Ulis said. “People are going to say I can’t do it and they’ll be surprised when I do.”