The 2019 draft isn’t looking so great right now. It’s early, so there’s a lot of time for these busts to improve, but lots of the top draftees are doing really badly. Zion Williamson has made no impact so far, for example. And someone like Darius Garland has made an impact, but in a severely negative way.
But Cameron Johnson, the 11th pick, is doing fine. While all these other lottery picks tank their teams whenever they step on the court, here he is, contributing (sorta) to a winning (kinda) team. His relative skill on the hardwood compared to his peers probably has something to do with his age; he’s 23 already, getting close to 24. I’ve mentioned it before, but I’ll mention it again because it blows my mind: he’s older than Devin Booker, now in his fifth season. So of course Johnson is going to be a bit more NBA-ready.
I mean, that’s what you want, right? As a team like the Suns? A player who can come in and right away make some shots instead of having to be babysat for a few years before they become playable? The Suns made the right choice here. Why would you want just one Devin Booker when you could have two Devin Bookers except one of them is a bit taller and is named Cameron Johnson?