Paul Coro

azcentral sports

Early-teens Devin Booker felt like he should have been selected for age-group national basketball teams.

Late-teens Devin Booker appreciates the timing of being part of that scene now.

Booker, a teenager for three more months, continues to fast-track his Suns career with a busy July. First, Booker is acting as a leader for the Suns’ NBA Summer League team and will play at least twice with the squad of draft picks and hopefuls in Las Vegas. Then, Booker will join USA Basketball’s Select Team that will train against Team USA for five days in Las Vegas to help prepare it for the Olympics.

“All the guys who were on those (previous national) teams, a lot of them are still in college and things like that,” Booker said. “I’m getting a chance to participate against the grown Olympic team so I’d rather take that chance now.

“It’s something I’ve always wanted to do my whole life – to represent this country. Now I’m getting the chance to be on the Select Team and hopefully mold into being on the Olympic team one day.”

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Booker’s basketball work barely let up since his All-Rookie first-team campaign. He often has been in Phoenix working out in the Suns training room and on the Suns practice court individually until he joined the Suns’ NBA Summer League practices this week - alongside new teammate and college roommate, Tyler Ulis.

“I think I’m going to treat every summer like that, especially in my younger years,” Booker said. “Even though I had a pretty good rookie year, I’m still not satisfied. I still have a lot to prove. I don’t want it to be a freak season. I know people think I can play now a little bit so there’s going to be a little bit more attention on me. I’m just getting ready for that.”

Booker may still be the third youngest player even on a summer league team (only Suns first-round picks Dragan Bender and Marquese Chriss are younger) but even Ulis said he is looking to his longtime friend to show the way. Booker will play heavy minutes in Saturday’s Summer Suns debut.

It is a chance for Booker to play both guard spots, work on his game with post-up and isolation opportunities and develop leadership skills.

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“He’s got that in him,” said Suns assistant coach Nate Bjorkgren, who is the Suns’ summer league head coach. “He’s a leader. He’s confident but he’s taken much more of a leadership role. He’s closing out our huddles. He’s talking in our film sessions.”

Booker said it is important for him to learn Chriss’ and Bender’s skill sets now because he expects to play with them in the rotation during the Suns season. His main offseason focus has been conditioning, as exemplified when he jumped on the treadmill after the first summer league practices and skipped breaks between practice drills.

“He’s really coming into this summer with a purpose,” Bjorkgren said.

Booker already changed his diet after his Kentucky season, when “every day was a cheat day.” He mostly eliminated fast food (chicken fingers from Raising Cane’s are his weakness) and soda as he tries to abide by teammate Ronnie Price's rule of no carbohydrates after 3 p.m.

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“I got the experience, the experience of chasing J.J. Redick off screens and things like that,” Booker said. “You think you’re in shape until you actually get in the game. There are two different types of shape. There’s treadmill in-shape and then there’s basketball in-shape. Basketball in-shape includes eating right and all that.”

Booker has grown to 6 feet 7 but he said “time will tell” if he eventually plays more small forward. He already is growing into a role where he is asked by the coaches to huddle up the summer team during practices to be the one offering correction and direction.

“It kind of happened naturally to me,” Booker said. “Even though I’m probably younger than all of these guys, I’ve been through it. This is something I’m trying to prepare them for so they’re not caught as off-guard as I was. With Tyler being one of my close friends, I get to tell him all the time. But, other guys, Marquese (Chriss), (Dragan) Bender, all the new guys on the summer league team, I try to give them the little tips that I wish I had.”

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Free throws

The Suns added longtime Division I assistant coach Scott Duncan to their staff as a player development assistant. He has been a college assistant since 1978, serving the past five seasons as Wyoming’s associate head coach. He worked for three Pac-12 teams – UCLA (2007-11), Oregon (2000-07) and Washington State (1995-97).

* Bjorkgren on playing Bender and Chriss together during summer league: “Marquese is so super athletic. He can play above the rim. He can post inside. Dragan, with his size (7 feet 1), he can shoot the 3. He’s really smart. He can slash. He can cut. He can handle off-ball screens so you could see those two in ball screen actions together with Marquese coming to set it and Dragan coming off.”

* Bjorkgren’s summer bench staff includes returning Suns staffers Bret Burchard, Chris Darnell, Jason Fraser and Scott Vaughn.

Reach Paul Coro at paul.coro@arizonarepublic.com or (602) 444-2470. Follow him attwitter.com/paulcoro.