Phoenix Suns guard Collin Gillespie made the rounds after breaking out for a career-high 28 points in the win over the Los Angeles Lakers. The Villanova product knocked down eight of 14 three-pointers, adding four rebounds, five assists, and a couple of steals. He’s finally finding his footing in the league after going undrafted in 2022 and bouncing around the G-League. Notably, plenty of that has had to do with Devin Booker.

Collin Gillespie Raves About Devin Booker

The Suns’ franchise player has taken him under his wing, and they’ve developed strong chemistry on the court.

In a December 4 interview with NBA insider Mark Medina, Gillespie tipped his hat to Booker’s playmaking abilities.

While he’s not a pure point guard or a pass-first type of guy, Gillespie lauded Booker’s court vision and ability to keep everybody involved while making the right play:

“He’s a great player. Obviously, he’s one of the best players in the league. He’s a prolific scorer. But he’s also really impressed me with his playmaking ability,” Gillespie said, per RG. “He always makes the right plays. He plays basketball the right way. He never forces anything. He’s a winner. He tries to win basketball games in any way possible. He doesn’t worry about his own stuff. Obviously, there are some guys in the league that do that. He’s really just worried about winning and trying to help us win any way that we can.”

Gillespie also praised Booker for his leadership skills. He told the story of how he wanted the team to bond and hosted them during the summer to make sure they got a jump start to the season:

“He’s vocal in terms of leadership with what he sees on the floor. Then he’s also a team guy,” Gillespire revealed. “We all went to Flagstaff (Ariz.) to his place this summer. We were there for that for a few days and had a little minicamp with the rest of the team. So he’s been a great leader in our locker room with a bunch of younger guys and older guys. So he’s been awesome. [In Flagstaff], we played a lot of pickup. We went to his house and chilled there. I golfed with him a couple of times. It was good.”

Booker is just 29 years old, but he’s been in the league for a decade now. As a young veteran who has already been to the NBA Finals but has also experienced the bottom of the standings, he now understands his role within the organization better than ever.

Booker is Also Impressed by His New Teammate

Given their precarious salary cap situation, the Suns needed to find cheap reinforcements who could make a big impact.

If you were to ask Booker, that’s exactly what Gillespie is giving them:

“He’s been putting in the work,” Booker said of Gillespie. “He’s been putting in the work all summer. Everybody is just now seeing it. But we’ve been seeing it in open gyms. We’ve been seeing it in practice. So I’m happy for him that he’s gotten to show the world what he’s capable of doing.”

Through 22 games, Gillespie is posting career bests across the board, averaging 13.4 points, 3.8 rebounds, 5.0 assists, 1.2 steals, and 1.8 three-pointers per game on 44/42/83 shooting splits, and he may have finally found his home in the NBA.