It was during his time playing for the CBA’s team in Grand Rapids, Michigan, just before he headed abroad, that Melvin met Veronica Gutierrez, and not long thereafter Devin was born. That led to a cuppa coffee – 32 games with three franchises over two seasons – in the NBA, then an 11-year career overseas, the majority of which spent in Italy. Still, it turned out not to be enough for a NBA team to take a risk on him, and the high-scoring, 6ft 1in point guard went the way of the alternate American league, the now-defunct Continental Basketball Association. At Missouri, he was named a First-Team All-American and Big Eight Player of the Year as a senior while leading the Tigers to an Elite Eight berth in the 1994 NCAA Tournament. “That might be the best Father’s Day gift I will ever receive, to hear my son’s name called.” The entirety of his potential is not yet known, and the team that takes him will have a tremendous opportunity to mold him into exactly what it needs.“I wasn’t as locked in as a prospect as Devin is, but it’s just been great to go through this with my son and all the hard work that he’s put in is paying off right now,” Melvin told the Guardian by phone this past Monday. Wade and implement my own twist to it.”Īnother upside to Booker is that he is the youngest player in his draft class and will not turn 19 until the start of next season. “I just feel like it’s all business down there, and that’s what I want. I’m willing to learn from any veteran, but especially one of the best two-guards ever to play the game. Wade is getting older now and he’s in the last part of his career, so I can come in and learn from him. “I had a great meeting with Pat Riley it’s humbling,” Booker said. Even if Wade still holds the starting job for a few more seasons, there is a sizable workload available for an understudy. He missed 19 games after sitting 27 the year before, and his playing time dipped to a career-low 31.8 minutes per game. Wade, 33, is still plenty potent as a scorer and reminded everyone of that last season, but his health is unpredictable. The Heat obviously see at least a little of that in Booker because when they met with him in Chicago, Pat Riley talked about a gradual transition for him as Dwyane Wade’s back-up. “I get that comparison a lot and I like that,” Booker said. He has often heard himself likened to Golden State’s Klay Thompson, who has a similar build and shooting range. With limited minutes and shots available on the loaded Wildcats last year, Booker still managed 10 points per game and 18.7 per 40 minutes. I’m trying to become an elite two-way player.” I can create for myself and create for others. “We had plenty of ball handlers out there. “We were surrounded by a lot of talent at Kentucky, so I found my niche because that’s what we needed,” he said. He has a strong case given that he drilled 41.1 percent of his 3s last season and made 47 percent from the field overall, which is why he unexpectedly vaulted to first-round status after one season in college.
As I became a shooter, I wanted to be the best.”īooker, a 6-foot-6, 206-pound shooting guard from Kentucky, claims he is “definitely” the best shooter available in the June 25 draft, where Miami has the No. “That’s my best attribute, and I take a lot of pride in it. “Every team needs shooters,” Booker said at the combine this month. They were the seventh-worst 3-point shooting team in the league. Thirty-six players in the NBA hit at least 38 percent on 3-pointers last season and none of them played for the Heat. A team as starved for shooting as the Heat are will have trouble skipping past the crisp jumper of Devin Booker.īooker might not meet all of Miami’s criteria for a draft pick, and small forward seems like a more pressing need, but there is no question he would immediately shore up a glaring shortfall.
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