Paul Coro

The Arizona Republic

In the bleakest of Suns seasons, rookie guard Devin Booker offered another ray of light by being chosen to compete in the NBA All-Star weekend's 3-point contest.

Booker, the NBA's youngest player at 19, is leading the rookie class with 41.7 percent 3-point shooting this season. He will be only the fourth rookie to compete in the 30-year-old contest, joining Stephen Curry (2010), Kyle Korver (2004) and Dennis Scott (1991).

Booker has made 45 of 108 attempts and just took his season scoring average to double digits for the first time Sunday after being the Suns scoring leader for five of the past seven games. He is averaging 10.0 points, 1.9 rebounds and 1.5 assists after starting 15 of the past 16 games for the injury-plagued Suns.

The 3-point contest will be held Feb. 13 in Toronto as part of All-Star weekend's Saturday lineup.

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Booker will also be a leading candidate for Western Conference Rookie of the Month after averaging a rookie-best 17.3 points and 2.6 assists in January.

The Suns drafted the 6-foot-6 guard with their 13th overall pick in June after he played one season as a sixth man at Kentucky. He worked into the rotation slowly but earned steady time and then moved into the starting lineup as the Suns were besieged with backcourt injuries to Eric Bledsoe, Brandon Knight and Ronnie Price. He scored a season-high 32 points on Jan. 19 at Indiana.

Booker does not have enough 3-pointers made to qualify for overall leaders but would rank 12th for 3-point percentage if he did.

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