Summarize and humanize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in EnglishA star is surging just when the world believed his squad was done. A former role player has become a 20-point scorer with just one move. And a losing team is redefining the term “tank.”Let’s open up the notebook to run through three NBA trends that have caught my eye over the past week:Devin Booker, point guard (again)In autumn 2018, the Phoenix Suns’ only at-the-time star could not stay away from the court.Recovering from surgery on his right hand, Devin Booker wasn’t able to shoot normally. Or dribble. Or pass. He could not touch a basketball with the paw that had just undergone an operation, but that didn’t stop him from practicing.Set to miss the beginning of the season and with doctors telling him he couldn’t go righty for any basketball activities, Booker put himself through one-on-zero workouts using only his off-hand, the left one. This was not a drill to improve his less coordinated side, but sometimes life hands you unintended benefits.Booker went through shooting and ballhandling exercises only as a southpaw. He used one arm so much for so long that he would end his workouts icing his left shoulder, as if he were a starting pitcher.He returned for the beginning of that regular season and has been a dual threat ever since — never more than today.Booker has gone left on 55 percent of his drives to the basket in 2024-25, according to Second Spectrum. Only three right-handed players (Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Anthony Edwards and Jalen Williams) have driven left more than he has this season. And those moments tend to go well.The basketball world may have given up on the Suns, one of the NBA’s most disappointing teams, months ago, but aside from a blowout loss to the defending-champion Boston Celtics on Wednesday, Phoenix isn’t quitting on itself, in part because this has become Booker’s team to run.The Suns (35-38) have won five of their past seven games, not all against slouches. They’ve topped the Eastern Conference-best Cleveland Cavaliers and competitive Milwaukee Bucks during this stretch, during which Booker has become the group’s lead facilitator.He’s averaged 9.9 assists over these seven games and has reached double-digit dishes five times.Phoenix flopped last season without a point guard, unleashing a trio of Booker, Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal to head its attack. This past summer, it signed Tyus Jones to fill the hole.Now, it’s reviving itself after returning to the older ways. Booker is atop the offense once again.Look at how he maneuvers on the below play, setting up for a pick-and-roll with center Nick Richards, then snaking back through two Bucks defenders to get to his left. Once Booker hits the paint, Milwaukee has no choice but to converge on one of the league’s elite scorers. Booker notices two defenders covering three Suns on the opposite side of the court and flings a trusting pass to rookie Ryan Dunn, who nails the clutch, fourth-quarter 3-pointer.Circumstances around Booker have changed during these seven games, too. Beal, one of the team’s worst plus-minus culprits, is out with a hamstring strain.Suns coach Mike Budenholzer has rejiggered rotations. Booker is playing more alongside the rookies, Dunn and Oso Ighodaro, as well as third-year point guard Collin Gillespie, who recently entered the starting lineup, which has placed the basketball in Booker’s hands more.The Suns, Dallas Mavericks and Sacramento Kings are in a dance for the two bottom seeds in the Western Conference Play-In Tournament, all stuck within one game of one another. Phoenix’s schedule is brutal the rest of the way. Each of its next seven opponents is at least eight games above .500. It has an East Coast road trip upcoming, which includes matchups with Milwaukee, Boston and the New York Knicks. It comes home for a back-to-back against the Golden State Warriors and Oklahoma City Thunder.But the Suns have won some games lately that no one expected. The Mavs are scrapping for players, though Anthony Davis has returned. The Kings are falling. Now, Phoenix’s chance at the postseason rests in the ambidextrous hands of Booker.Float GOATSomeone has to score for the decrepit Mavericks, who have trekked through March with a roster more appropriate for NBA Jam. That someone is Naji Marshall, a man with fire propelling from the bottom of his feet — though on only one shot.Marshall, whose career high was 24 points coming into this season, has averaged 22.2 over his past 13 games. And he’s done it all with an inevitable right-handed floater.He churned out the best half of his NBA life earlier this week, dropping 28 points on the New York Knicks on 13-of-15 shooting. Ten of those attempts were right-handed floaters; he sank nine of them.The Knicks threw various defenders on him: Precious Achiuwa, Landry Shamet, Cameron Payne, all-world stopper OG Anunoby. Each one understood Marshall would maneuver to get back to his strong hand. It did not matter.Old-school baseball fans tell the tale of Sandy Koufax’s legendary perfect game in 1965. Koufax was tipping pitches that day, accidentally giving away to the Chicago Cubs whether the heater or his famously arcing curveball was coming. Still, no one got on base.And still, no one is containing the Marshall floater.Look at the pick-and-roll below from what became a career-best 38-point outburst against the Knicks. Marshall goes left, but Anunoby knows he won’t continue in that direction. Once Marshall turns back to his more comfortable side, Anunoby meets him with contact, then a chest bump. Marshall throws up a difficult floater, even drawing a foul, and the shot still goes into the basket.Marshall has scored more points on floaters during this 13-game run than all but two NBA players, according to Second Spectrum. A couple of All-Star guards, Tyler Herro and Trae Young, are ahead of him. But only Marshall is relying on this shot — and just this shot — so heavily.Walker Kessler’s 3-point barrageWords soften over time.“Tanking” became “rebuilding.” “Rebuilding” then became “retooling.” And now, whatever the Utah Jazz are up to requires a new descriptor: Experimenting.The Jazz are masters of the tank — err, the experiment. They’ve won one game this month, a victory that could end up the most detrimental in the NBA this season, considering it came over the Washington Wizards, with whom they are battling for the NBA’s worst record. The Jazz injury reports are a masterpiece of March manipulation. And now, it’s affecting playing style.Walker Kessler, the otherwise paint-dwelling 7-footer, is taking 3-pointers in droves, and he’s doing it with the encouragement of the organization. Kessler told reporters that coach Will Hardy has handed him “the go-ahead to try and work on it, trying to find where I can get my shots.”The Jazz are 16-58, a half-game worse than Washington. Why not experiment with Kessler’s ability to shoot 3s, especially if it helps the dive to first-place draft lottery positioning in the process?Naturally, this is not the prettiest sight.Kessler had taken only six 3-pointers all season before March 16. Since then, he’s thrown up 27 in seven games. He’s hit four of them (15 percent) and is working through a hitch in his release.The art of the Jazz’s tank comes in how these 3s are arriving.Big men learning to shoot jumpers normally takes a slow buildup. They knock in a few shots from the corners, then extend to the wings. Once they refine stand-still catch-and-shoots, they can do it after movement. But Kessler is skipping the steps.The Jazz get him 3s in pick-and-pops and in transition. They’ll find him when he’s hanging around the perimeter, which he does more of now. The man is not simply parking in the corners. Of these 27 3-pointers, 21 have come from the wings or the top of the key. He must work on his legs, too. Fourteen of his 23 misses have fallen short.At times, it seems as if the Jazz are hunting Kessler 3-pointers. During the second quarter of that Wizards epic, Kessler trailed a fast break. Washington defenders retreated well, but no one picked up the Utah center — which was not a breakdown, just the proper way to guard in that situation. With 18 seconds remaining on the shot clock, Kessler received a pass at the top of the key and tossed up a 3, as if he were trying an in-game Karl-Anthony Towns impersonation. The shot didn’t touch the rim.But this is the beauty of experimentation. Pull a player out of his usual mold to encourage an unexpected skill. For all we know, three years from now, Kessler will be draining corner 3s and point to this stretch as the catalyst for his long-range competence. Plus, the Jazz get some sweet, sweet losses in the process.Kessler didn’t take any 3-pointers during Utah’s latest defeat, his first game without a long ball since this stretch began. Maybe he burned too bright for such a glorious moment to continue. Or maybe the Kessler experiment will remain over the season’s final two weeks. After all, why shouldn’t it?(Photo: Christian Petersen / Getty Images)
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