Devin Booker's jersey among most popular, but he's 9th in All-Star fan voting for West guards

This is a conundrum.

How can Devin Booker have the eighth-most popular jersey in the entire NBA through the first half of the season, but come in ninth for Western Conference guards in the third fan returns for All-Star voting?

His jersey sales are ahead of Joel Embiid, the NBA MVP runner-up the last two seasons, Trae Young and Zion Williamson, but Lakers guard Austin Reaves has more All-Star votes than Booker.

Reaves has 392,546 votes while Booker is at 388,308.

What are the Suns' fans doing?

Phoenix is ninth in the NBA for most popular merchandise based on NBAStore.com sales through the first half of the season. Booker is a major reason why that’s the case based on his jersey sales alone.

So Suns fans are buying his jersey, but aren’t voting for him enough to be higher than nine? Maybe it’s more a case of NBA fans outside of the Suns fan-base aren’t showing Booker love.

Whatever it is, again, it’s a conundrum.

Being currently injured is clearly impacting the voting. Booker will miss his 13^th consecutive game Saturday against Indiana with a left groin strain.

He’s scheduled for a re-evaluation next week.

Read more: 5 takeaways from Suns' win over Nets in Cam Johnson's return

Out of sight, out of mind perhaps when it comes to Booker and the voting.

Phoenix (22-24) having a losing record isn’t helping, either, but Booker is averaging a career-high 27.1 points this season and is one of the NBA’s best players.

Where he ranks among today’s top players is debatable, but Booker is certainly better than Reaves.

Like Booker, Reaves is averaging a career-high (10.8 ppg.) in his second NBA season.

Solid player. He’s started 12 games this season, but Reaves is not Booker, and the Lakers (20-25) have a worse record than the Suns.

The Laker fans are clearly voting for their guys.

LeBron James leads all vote-getters with 6,506,682 votes. No surprise there.

Anthony Davis is third in West frontcourt voting with 3,838,171 votes, but he’s played four fewer games than Booker due to injury.

Russell Westbrook is sixth in West guard voting with 973,226 votes and isn’t even a starter on his own team this season.

Then there’s Reaves, who was ninth, just behind Booker after the second fan returns, but he has surpassed him since.

The voting is for the All-Star starters. This is nothing new as Booker, a three-time All-Star, has never made it as an All-Star starter.

His first two selections were as an injury replacement as NBA Commissioner Adam Silver chooses those.

Booker was voted in by the NBA head coaches as a reserve last year and finished fifth in the third fan returns, but Suns head coach Monty Williams thought he should’ve been a starter.

Phoenix had the NBA's best record and finished the season with a franchise-record 64 wins and No. 1 overall seed in the playoffs. Booker received All-NBA first team honors.

The fans are responsible for 50% of the vote, the media make up 25%, while the players account for 25%.

Then the league head coaches vote for the reserves – two guards, three frontcourt players and two wild cards who can play any position.

Have opinion about current state of the Suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at dmrankin@gannett.com or contact him at 480-787-1240. Follow him on Twitter at @DuaneRankin.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Devin Booker jersey popular, but fewer All-Star fan votes than Austin Reaves