Enough with the injury replacement All-Star selections. Devin Booker is more than deserving of one of the Western Conference reserve spots in the 2024 NBA All-Star Game.

-Gerald Bourguet

Devin Booker's case for a spot in the 2024 NBA All-Star Game

The 14 reserves for the 2024 NBA All-Star Game will be announced Thursday evening, and in what is becoming an aggravating, annual tradition, Devin Booker's spot among the seven Western Conference selections is far from guaranteed.

In 2020, Book's first All-Star bid came as an injury replacement for Damian Lillard. In 2021, he was an injury replacement for Anthony Davis. In 2022, it took Booker being the best player on a 64-win team to finally earn an outright All-Star bid. And then in 2023, he missed the event entirely because of a groin injury that sidelined him for too long to be seriously considered.

Here in 2024, he's either on the verge of a much-deserved fourth All-Star selection...or one of the biggest snubs of the last two decades.

Granted, the league holds more star players than ever. It's a mystery why the NBA hasn't expanded All-Star rosters to 15 spots to keep up with the rising talent, and there are no "easy" cuts in the West.

But in the interest of being thorough, and because lackluster fan voting didn't tell the same story that the player vote and media vote did, let's take a look at Devin Booker's case for the 2024 NBA All-Star Game.

Booker's season so far

An All-Star selection comes down to some combination of star power, popularity, individual stats and team success -- usually weighted differently depending on who you're asking and which player you're talking about.

In Booker's case, he's a certified superstar now. Aside from leading a team to the NBA Finals in 2021, being a top-five MVP candidate in 2022, being on the cover of NBA 2K and getting his own signature shoe with Nike, Book is the face of the Phoenix Suns franchise. He's the guy that Chris Paul, Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal all wanted to play with. He's seventh in jersey sales in the entire league, and as previously mentioned, he finished fifth in media voting and fifth in player voting among guards in the West.

More substantially, Booker is deserving statistically too. So far this season, he's averaging a career-high 28.4 points per game, which ranks fifth in the NBA. He's shooting a career-high 50.1 percent from the floor, including 38.1 percent from 3-point range -- 0.2 percent off his career high.

Between his career-high 61.8 true shooting percentage, his midrange mastery and his ability to ignite for 40, 50 or even 60-point performances on any given night, Booker is aesthetically the exact type of player fans should want to see in the All-Star Game.

But the reigning Western Conference Player of the Week hasn't just filled it up in the scoring column; in fact, Booker's career-best scoring numbers have come while navigating dual roles as the Suns' primary point guard.

Booker has hovered in the top-10 for assists all season, but his torrid scoring run over the last two weeks "dropped" him to 12th. What a scrub!

In any case, Point Book is averaging a career-high 7.3 assists per game so far this season, with a career-best 2.66 assist-to-turnover ratio. Not impressed yet? How about ranking 10th in potential assists, ninth in assist points created, and sixth in secondary assists per game among qualified players...all while doubling as the leading scorer of a top-six team in the West?

Just for reference, here are the only players in NBA history to put up at least 28 points, 7 assists and 4 rebounds on 60 percent true shooting in a season like Booker is currently doing, per Stathead: Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, LeBron James, James Harden (four times), Damian Lillard (three times) and Luka Doncic (twice). In all 12 of those instances, that player made the All-Star Game. Booker doesn't deserve to be unlucky No. 13 among that group.

Whether you measure him as a scorer, a point guard or the hybrid of both that he's become, there is zero argument against Devin Booker being an All-Star. It hasn't been perfectly smooth sailing, and he's missed nine games, but at 39 games played heading into Wednesday night, his 28-7-5 stat line on 50-38-88 shooting splits are more than enough to earn an All-Star spot.

How does Booker stack up to the competition?

There's no question Booker's case is worthy, but as always, these things come down to the competition. So far, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Luka Doncic, LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Nikola Jokic are in as starters. All five are deserving of an All-Star spot (LeBron is the only "undeserving" starter in that group, but he's LeBron and he plays for the Los Angeles Lakers, so there's no point arguing it).

That leaves seven reserve spots: two guard slots, three frontcourt slots and two wild card slots that can be filled by any position.

To narrow it down, let's start with the frontcourt. Despite the Lakers' sub-.500 record, Anthony Davis is a no-brainer. The Lakers are the NBA's most popular team, and beyond that, AD has been the best Laker this season, putting up 24.9 points, 12.1 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 2.3 blocks per game on 55.4 percent shooting. Ranking 19th in scoring, fourth in rebounding and fifth in blocks solidifies his spot as one of the league's elite two-way talents.

Kawhi Leonard is another lock for a frontcourt spot. He's the best player on a top-four team in the West, he's stayed healthy, and he's been an absolute killer for an LA Clippers squad that's on a 22-5 tear. His 23.8 points, 6.2 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game don't leap off the page, but he's doing it on impressive efficiency (63.1 percent true shooting), and the Clippers are demolishing opponents when he plays, outscoring them by 331 points in his 1,415 minutes of action. He's an All-Star.

For that third frontcourt slot, you could make a case for Domantas Sabonis, Paul George, Rudy Gobert, Karl-Anthony Towns, Lauri Markkanen, Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram. Sabonis seems like the most likely option, given that the Sacramento Kings need at least one All-Star as the fifth-best team in the West. The backcourt is more crowded, meaning De'Aaron Fox has more competition than his fellow King.

Sabonis is also putting up a 20-13-8 stat line on 61.9 percent shooting, leading the league in rebounds and ranking ninth in assists. He's arguably the third-best big in the West behind Jokic and AD. Despite Sacramento oddly being a +2 when he plays and a +39 when he rests, he's got the edge for either the third frontcourt spot or a wild card spot.

From there, we've got two open guard spots and two wild card spots. As the best player on the best team in the West, Anthony Edwards is a lock for one guard spot. Ant-Man's 26-5-5 stat line is deserving on its own, he's an electric player who can heat up in a hurry or dunk on somebody at any given moment, and the Minnesota Timberwolves deserve at least one All-Star. He's in.

The elephant in the room is Stephen Curry inevitably making the All-Star Game. On the one hand, it's Steph Curry! The All-Star Game should be fun and include the league's biggest names, and there's no denying Curry is still that. He's not even having a bad season, putting up a 27-5-4 stat line on 63 true shooting.

But the Golden State Warriors are four games below .500, ranking 12th in the West. Because he's playing so many minutes and his fellow starters have struggled, the Dubs have actually been slightly better when Curry's sat compared to when he's been on the court. If it were any of these other guards instead of Steph Curry, they wouldn't be making the All-Star Game. But again, it's Steph, so he's a virtual lock for another spot.

That leaves two wild card spots for Booker, PG, Fox, Gobert, KAT, Markkanen, Zion, Ingram, Kyrie Irving, Chet Holmgren and Victor Wembanyama to fight over. Let's whittle down the playing field a bit.

Holmgren has been a revelation and a key part of the Oklahoma City Thunder's surge to a top-2 spot in the West, but his numbers aren't good enough in this field. Victor Wembanyama is otherworldly and already one of the NBA's most impactful defenders, but no rookie sensation is getting in with a 10-37 record. Irving has only played 27 games, which automatically takes his 25-5-5 stat line out of the running.

Markkanen's 23.5 points and 8.7 rebounds aren't good enough to compete on a sub-.500 Utah Jazz team. It feels weird not having an All-Star for the New Orleans Pelicans, but they're only eighth in the West, and neither Williamson (22-5-5) nor Ingram (21-6-5) have put up enough eye-popping numbers to differentiate themselves in such a loaded group.

This is where it gets even more difficult. Towns has sacrificed on offense, played the best defense of his career and is the second-best offensive player on the No. 1 team in the West. Gobert could be heading for his fourth Defensive Player of the Year award as the anchor of the NBA's stingiest defense. The Wolves deserve more than one All-Star, and in a normal year, they'd probably get one.

But the league is too loaded with talent for that. KAT is an All-Star caliber player, but his 22.6 points per game ranks 31st in the league. His 8.6 rebounds per game ranks 25th. He's an elite shooting big, but the only case for putting him in over Davis, Sabonis or another frontcourt option is strictly team success.

As for Gobert...the defense is elite, but the offense remains limited. People don't watch the All-Star Game for defense. That's an entirely unfair argument against Gobert's true value, which is clearly All-Star worthy, but it's true. Nobody outside of Minnesota would want to watch Gobert actually play in the All-Star Game, which is a celebration of otherworldly athleticism and breathtaking offensive skills. In a more injury-riddled season, he might be in. But among this stacked group, his 13.3 points per game stick out like a sore thumb.

That leaves Booker, PG and Fox for those last two spots. All three are deserving, but one is likely to miss out. Fox and George have played a few more games, but Book has the clear edge in individual stats:

Devin Booker: 38 games, 28.4 PPG, 7.3 APG, 4.9 RPG, 61.8 TS%
Paul George: 43 games, 23.0 PPG, 3.5 APG, 5.5 RPG, 60.4 TS%
De'Aaron Fox: 39 games, 27.5 PPG, 5.6 APG, 4.1 RPG, 58.0 TS%

Booker has the edge over both players in scoring, assists and true shooting percentage, and he's averaging more rebounds than Fox. George has a significant advantage in team success, with the Clippers (30-15) sitting three games ahead of the Kings (27-18) and four games ahead of the Suns (27-20). Sacramento has a slight edge over Phoenix, but they're even in the win column.

It's hard to knock George's case. His numbers are lower than Booker and Fox, but it's partially because the Clippers are steamrolling everyone. In 1,465 minutes with George on the court, LA has been a staggering +344. Booker is a +218 in his 1,377 minutes, while Fox is a +114 in 1,388 minutes.

However, that on/off-court differential helps make Booker's case too. The Suns go from a +218 when Booker plays to a -116 whenever he rests, which means there's a 334-point difference between Phoenix with Book vs. Phoenix without Book.

Out of the five All-Star starters and all 15 reserve candidate we've mentioned here, the only players with a more drastic on/off differential than Booker (334) are Nikola Jokic (498), Paul George (412), Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (391) and Kawhi Leonard (386). So basically, two MVP candidates and the two leading stars of the most dominant team in the NBA right now.

In a category that serves as a testament to how valuable these players are to their specific teams, that's pretty good company to be in!

It really is a shame a few players between Booker, George, Fox, Sabonis and Gobert will have to miss out on an All-Star selection. But after years of dealing with injury-replacement bids, Devin Booker has done more than enough to solidify himself as a legitimate All-Star. The coaches failing to vote him in outright, while he's in the middle of a career year, would be a blight on the very purpose of the All-Star Game.

Western Conference All-Star reserves prediction: Anthony Edwards, Stephen Curry, Anthony Davis, Kawhi Leonard, Domantas Sabonis, Paul George and Devin Booker