I agree Booker utilizes his strengths and attacks mostly looking to score. But he is not tasked with running a team. He has a ultra green light and plays LOT of minutes. Russell is learning how to play winning basketball and is being held accountable.
It's not like D'Angelo runs the team either. It's a team effort. Partly the reason why the Lakers (at the moment) can still win games when he goes MIA or his shot is off. Whereas it's basically every man for himself in Phoenix and Booker's fighting for touches rather than being able to just blend in.
I have not seen Booker do anything that Russell can't. Booker is not an exceptional athlete (slightly more explosive then Russell). From what I have seen he doesn't have more capability to break down defenses, he is just more aggressive and has a scorer's mentality. How is Booker averaging 20 PPG with a PER under 15?
He's more consistent in his play/aggressiveness/ability to create for himself whereas D'Angelo tends to rely on getting hot, and not generate points evenly throughout the game (which again goes back to the whole team thing). PER is a nonsense stat, it really shouldn't be used as the foundation for anything. I guess it's cool to look at if you wanna see the box score in a per minute whole number, but other than that it's near meaningless.
Neither are good defenders, but I would add the caveat that Russell has a tougher match up every night at PG and still has a better DWS and DBPM. Booker is guarding one of the weakest positions in the league in terms of star power.
Again, if you're not a defensive anchor, DWS and DBPM are near meaningless. I've seen promising things from Booker on defense this season, I can't really say the same for D'Angelo - seems like he's regressed in that area, but it's still early on in the season.
As for whether he is a 2 or a 1: the Lakers are committed to converting him to a 1. Curry, Westbrook, Harden, etc have all showed this is possible. Let the man learn how to do it. The game will slow down for him and his size will give him advantages at the 1.
Curry and Westbrook both looked comfortable playing the 1 by the time they were D'Angelo's age. I'm not saying that there's absolutely no possibility of him becoming a 1, but his game simply isn't built to be a PG. He thrives more off ball, has trouble initiating the offense and breaking down defenses on the regular.
At worst Russell and Booker should be viewed on equal footing. However, at this point Russell's stats are better in nearly ever category while still learning a new position. Yet people are saying Booker is better.
This is why it's hard to judge young players who are in completely different systems this early on in the season. I don't think Booker has separated himself to the point where it's not a conversation just that he's performing better and utilizing his strengths more up to this point.
