Trevor Booker is coming to Indiana and will join the Pacers. What can you expect from the big man for the rest of the season?
As it presently stands, the Pacers have a serviceable backup at four of the five positions. They have two exceptional young centers, two steady point guards, two highlight reel-directing shooting guards, and two quality small forwards that both excel at specific skills. Thaddeus Young, however, does not have a solid backup at the power forward position. The Pacers are going to address that problem tomorrow, as the team will reportedly sign Trevor Booker once he clears waivers on Friday (more on the transaction specifics here).
First of all, this is signing is not an indictment of TJ Leaf as a prospect. The Pacers are being patient with their first-round pick, and they will continue to develop him over the coming seasons. But the youngster isn’t quite good enough to be the backup power forward yet, especially in the playoffs. That is where Trevor Booker comes in. He is a solid backup right now, and he won’t get the team killed in the postseason if he has to play non-garbage time minutes.
So, what can Booker do, and how can he help? Let’s take a look.
Over the course of his career, Booker has played almost exclusively as a power forward, logging 87 percent of his minutes at that position. Seven percent of his minutes have been at small forward and six percent have come at center, so he can be used in more versatile lineups, but he will almost certainly play the 4 exclusively in Indiana.
To see what he does well on the court, let’s start by taking a look at his play-type profile from last season using a tool from NBA Math. Offensively, the results don’t look promising:
Woof, that spot-up value added (or, more technically, lost). Booker had 113 spot-up possessions and created just .7 points per possession on those plays. That put him in the 15.5 percentile leaguewide, showcasing how much he struggled on these plays. Much of this can be attributed to his lowly 32.1 percent shooting from three-point range last season, which is actually the second best figure of his career. Hopefully, Nate McMillan avoids putting Booker in these types of situations, as Booker is not particularly effective as a spot-up shooter.
Thankfully, he counters that by being a wonderful isolation scorer. On his 52 isolation plays in 2016-17, he scored 1.02 points per possession, which put him in the 83.4 percentile league-wide. That is borderline elite.
For a 6’8″, 230-pound human being, Booker is surprisingly strong and nimble. He knows it, too. When he gets a matchup he likes, he fearlessly attacks and uses his body to manufacture space. That makes him effective in isolations; once he creates that space, his touch around the basket is supreme:
Given that the Pacers run a space-and-pace centric offense, it is unlikely that Booker will have many opportunities of that mold during this final month. But when he gets a matchup he likes, he strikes, and that usually ends with a positive result for his team.
In the post, he uses that same mentality. He loves going at guys and trying to finish over his man, but his smaller height makes it harder for him to drop in post-ups. His aggression still merits him some good looks under the tin: on post-ups last season he created .87 points per possession, which put him in the 53.6 percentile.
Good, but not great. However, being above average in the post at his height is impressive and shows that he knows what to do with the ball when he has the ball near the basket:
This area is where the Pacers will probably have him hang out the most. You can see him bully his defender and essentially just push him out of the way to create the space for that shot, a skill that the Pacers current bigs all lack. Booker gives them another dimension in the post and one that they will look to frequently attack.
Elsewhere, his player play type profile doesn’t tell us a ton. He was weak in transition, ranking in just the 26.7 percentile, but that isn’t a surprise given his lack of speed. He could hurt the Pacers here since they love to push the ball, but the coaching staff certainly knows his limitations and will likely play him in slower paced lineups with guys like Cory Joseph and Bojan Bogdanovic.
The final takeaway is that Booker ranked in the 67.1 percentile on handoffs, something that the Pacers have their bigs do frequently. Like we have seen already, he loves to be aggressive and get into his man to create an advantage, and that force lets him be effective on handoffs. Watch him clear out Kyle Korver here:
That solid pick created the basket for Robert Covington. An early idea for Booker’s nickname: mean Joe screen.
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The rest of Booker’s offensive play type profile tells the story of a guy who is fairly average at most other skills. He is a weak cutter, but like his transition deficiencies, this can be attributed to his slow speed. I don’t anticipate we will see many cuts from Booker in a Pacers uniform.
What the play-type profile doesn’t capture: passing. Booker coughs it up an average amount: his turnover percentage this season is 14.5. But he’s a solid passer out of the post, and when given the chance he can absolutely find the open man. Over the last two seasons, he has ballooned his assist percent over 10 percent, an impressive figure for a big man, so it is fair to label Booker a competent passer.
Defensively is where Booker makes his dough. Here is his play-type profile on that end of the court:
Much better.
Spot-ups stick out again, so let’s start with those. As mentioned multiple times, he’s a ground-bound player without much speed. How does that affect him guarding spot-ups? It means his closeouts are low and slow, the worst combo for guarding stretch fours.
However, his low value-added on that chart is deceiving, he was in the 30.1 percentile defending spot-ups last year. That’s bad, but not horrible. He was able to stay out of the bottom quarter of the league thanks to his acumen defending other play types, which shows up all over the rest of his defensive play-type profile.
Look at those pick-and-roll numbers! Look at them again! Now smile. The Pacers have struggled to defend the pick-and-roll basically every game this year. Booker excels at this and could help tremendously. He finished in the 83.5 percentile defending ball-handlers on pick and rolls (see also: switches) and was in the 59.7 percentile when defending the roll man (see also: not switching). In layman’s terms: He’s above average stopping the roll man, and he’s near elite at stopping the ball-handler. Opponents think they have an easy finish over Booker thanks to his shorter stature, but he is punishing:
That clip displays his aforementioned acumen. He points out the double screen coming at the top of the key to communicate with his teammates. Then, he hedges the screen(s) to stop any rolling players. He finally slides his feet to stay with Jusuf Nurkic before erasing his shot.
Beautiful.
His height limits his ability to defend post-ups, a parallel to his challenges on offense. He finished last season in the 13.8 percentile defending such plays. But with the Pacers, he will likely play next to one of either Myles Turner or Domantas Sabonis at all times, and whichever player he shares the court with will presumably play, and guard, centers. This will keep Booker from frequently guarding post-ups, so overcome your worries of him guarding anyone in the post.
In most other play-types, Booker ranks as an average defender. However, he showcases IQ and ferocity on that end of the floor, something the Pacers could use in the post, and it leads to him making a multitude of positive plays:
Beyond offense and defense, Booker gives the Pacers two added bonuses: lineup versatility and injury assurance. McMillan is still hesitant to play Turner and Sabonis together, but Booker could be the perfect partner for either big man in the event that the Pacers opponent has two bigs on the floor.
Injury wise (knock on wood!), Booker can soak up significant minutes without getting killed if he needed to fill either Turner, Sabonis, or Thaddeus Young’s role. That is huge when preparing for the home stretch of the season.
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We will know more about what Booker can bring to the table once we see the role Nate McMillan has planned for him. My educated guess is he will play around 10 minutes per game, replacing TJ Leaf’s minutes as well as removing the times when Bojan Bogdanovic plays the 4. However, the Pacers now have more lineup versatility and a bruising power forward at their disposal. Those benefits alone make Booker worth watching the rest of the season.