Bol Bol 2024-25 Suns season preview: Was last year's breakthrough sustaina-Bol?

Coming off arguably the best season — or at least half-season — of his career, Bol Bol is on the precipice of building on his success in the Valley, but he’s also in a position where he has to prove to yet another new head coach that he’s worthy of rotation minutes.

Bol’s role with the Phoenix Suns solidified over the second half of last season, but what was it specifically that helped him succeed? What can he offer this team under Mike Budenholzer, and where does he need to be more consistent?

Over the next 11 days, we’re going through our Suns season preview series, one-by-one, for all 17 players on the roster. That includes both a written piece for the avid readers (hello there!) and a video breakdown for the visual learners.

For Day 6, we’re diving into the unbelieva-Bol, the indescriba-Bol, the lova-Bol…Bol Bol.

Bol Bol 2024-25 Suns Season Preview

As an unrestricted free agent this summer, Bol Bol could’ve signed elsewhere for more money. But he ultimately decided to re-sign with Phoenix on a veteran minimum deal, banking on further growth and improvement in a city where — for the first time in his career — he proved he could play meaningful minutes on a playoff-caliber team.

“I think it was just the best option to come back to be with the team that I was with last year,” Bol said at Suns Media Day. “And everyone has high hopes for me and they just believe in me, and I think this was the best situation for me. It was just a no-brainer to come back here.”

The hope is that Bol will be able to carry forward the momentum he built over the second half of last season. For the first two-and-a-half months of the 2023-24 campaign, Bol played a grand total of 20 minutes over seven appearances for Phoenix. But once he proved behind the scenes in post-practice scrimmages that he deserved more minutes, he made the most of his opportunity.

In the 24 games where Bol played double-digit minutes, Phoenix went 18-6, with Bol averaging 8.3 points, 4.8 rebounds and 0.8 blocks in 15.9 minutes per game. He also shot 64.1 percent from the floor in those games, including 51.2 percent from 3. Some matchups just weren’t ideal for him defensively, but the inconsistency of his minutes felt indefensi-Bol at a certain point.

It sounds like the opinions of the front office, assistant coach David Fizdale and even the players may have swayed Budenholzer over this summer.

“I think from getting the job and being around James and Josh and the front office and the guys that had watched the team last year, deciding to keep Fiz on the staff, there was a lot of, I’d say, love or support or whatever words you want to use for how Bol can positively impact our team,” Budenholzer said. “And you look at some of the analytics when Bol and Nurk played together were probably some of the best combinations for the team last year.”

Bud’s not wrong. According to NBA.com, lineups with Bol and Jusuf Nurkic on the floor together posted a +12.9 Net Rating in 167 minutes last season, and the Suns went 22-9 in those 31 games. So aside from sharing the court with Nurk, how can this 24-year-old force of nature make himself indispensi-Bol in the rotation?

Bol Bol’s game

The foundation for Bol Bol’s game is continued efficiency from 3-point range. As a career 29 percent 3-point shooter coming into his first season with the Suns, Bol was often left open by his defenders, and he made them pay, shooting 42.3 percent from deep last year.

It was a small sample size of only 52 attempts, but if he can prove that efficiency’s sustaina-Bol, it’ll open up the rest of his game.

The reason is that if Bol is a legitimate 3-point threat, it opens up his ability to attack closeouts off the dribble. Because a Bol Bol 3-pointer feels more like 6 points due to the crowd reaction, defenders felt compelled to close out on him hard once they saw one drop. At that point, Bol could hit them with a pump fake and put the ball on the floor.

That pump fake is so slow and sweet it might as well have been dipped in molasses, but it fooled defenders because his regular 3-point release is just as methodical. Once his defender was out of position, Bol had the handle and sweeping strides to either get to the rim, pull up for a midrange jumper over any challenge, or even find shooters with a drive-and-kick:

Bol also has excellent body control for a guy his size. Because he shot a staggering 84.2 percent at the rim, defenders had to be physical with him to keep him from getting to his spots or overpowering them with his length.

But Bol had a counter for that too thanks to his ability to rise up, square himself up to the basket in midair, and knock down the shot — sometimes even through contact. In many ways, his turnaround jumper is untoucha-Bol, because there aren’t many people on this planet who could get a hand on it.

“Offensively, a unique skill-set,” Mike Budenholzer described. “Obviously an ability to shoot and make 3s, but make plays that guys at that height normally can’t make.”

According to Cleaning the Glass, which filters out garbage time, Bol ranked in the 99th percentile on shots in the short midrange (4-14 feet away from the basket), shooting 69 percent on those looks. If he can just keep knocking down 3s to force defenders to close out on him, he’ll continue being an untamable force at the rim and in the short midrange.

Defensively, Bol has the tools to be elite, but he could still use some work on that end. The biggest thing is just being more consistent, avoiding mistakes and staying in plays so that he could put his 7-foot-3 frame and gargantuan 7-foot-8 wingspan to good use.

There were plenty of promising signs. According to The BBall Index, Bol ranked in the 97th percentile in rim points saved per 75 possessions, the 94th percentile in block rate on contests and the 98th percentile in rim defensive field goal percentage vs. expected (which measures how much worse opponents shot at the rim against Bol compared to what they’d normally shoot).

“I think he’s a really unique player and a shot-blocker with his length and how he can change the game defensively,” Budenholzer said.

The problem is he wasn’t putting that secondary rim protection to use enough, as he ranked in only the 42nd percentile in percentage of rim shots contested. Part of that comes with playing the 4 and being pulled away from the basket, but Bol clearly knows how to contain ball-handlers long enough to get up a good contest, and when he’s engaged, he’s an effective weak-side shot-blocker:

Bol’s biggest area for improvement this season is showing he can stay on the court consistently, regardless of matchup. He’s got his work cut out for him, as he only played 13 minutes in the Suns’ preseason debut and all of them came in the second half, but unlike in past years, where everything still felt like potential, he’s now got the tools and skill-set to really be an impactful player on both ends.

Harnessing the power of fan favorite Bol Bol

Part of the reason it’d be so helpful for Bol Bol to crack Budenholzer’s regular rotation is he provides some much-needed size, rebounding, rim protection and finishing ability near the basket. But perhaps just as critical? People love Bol Bol, and the vibes are immaculate when he’s out there making plays.

Mason Plumlee said he’s “thrilled” to be playing with Bol again after the two spend two seasons together in Denver. Devin Booker has praised Bol’s willingness to learn, and Bradley Beal said he’s gotten “lightyears better” over the summer.

“Bol did tremendous things for us, we all seen it,” Beal said. “His ability to be able to space the floor, impact rebound and alter shots at the rim, but also put it on the floor and be versatile, it really helped us. His size and his ability at the rim, nobody else has that. We thrive in those situations. We want to continue to encourage him.”

As much as his teammates love him, the fans love him just as much. Just listen to how the crowd responds to some of his more exciting highlights:

“He’s a magnet, I feel like, out there,” Jusuf Nurkic said. “The crowd love him so much wherever we go, it doesn’t matter if it’s home or away. We’re just happy to see him out there too.”

“I just love everything about Bol, and you can tell that everybody loves Bol or are rooting for him, even the crowd,” Kevin Durant added. “Every arena we go to, they’re rooting for Bol….He’s just a great soul, man. I like being around him.”

That kind of endorsement from an all-time great would mean something to anyone, but it was particularly meaningful to Bol Bol, who grew up idolizing Durant as his favorite player. KD took Bol under his wing last year, giving him constant pointers on the sidelines and working out with him over the summer.

“I’m sure everyone saw that clip last year of me and him with the iPad, but he’ll just always be like, ‘Do this better,’ and, ‘Do this better,'” Bol Bol explained. “He just tries to critique everything I do. And even in the workouts, he’ll be like, ‘Yo, you should do this,’ and then he’ll explain why you should be able to do this. And then I just see him do it in the games, and I’m like, ‘All right, it works.’”

Being able to learn from his favorite player as his teammate undoubtedly played a role in Bol Bol wanting to return to Phoenix, and because of their similar size, length and lankiness, he could learn a lot from someone like Durant and open up A Bol New World.

Frank Vogel mixed up the rotation tonight, and now the Suns are in A Bol New World pic.twitter.com/g55pf22a7x

— PHNX Suns (@PHNX_Suns) January 2, 2024

Terrible puns aside, if he finds ways to be matchup-proof on defense and continues to knock down 3s to open up the rest of his game, Bol Bol could prove to his new coach that he deserves to be a staple in the rotation of a Western Conference contender.

“I think learning and listening, [I] was really kind of won over with, like, he’s somebody that can help us win,” Budenholzer said. “He’s somebody that can impact winning. So I think we’re excited about getting Bol back, and he’s had a great summer in the gym working with the coaches. So he’s been great.”

More 2024-25 Suns season previews

• Collin Gillespie: Written breakdown | Video breakdown
• TyTy Washington: Written breakdown | Video breakdown
• Jalen Bridges: Written breakdown | Video breakdown
• Ryan Dunn: Written breakdown | Video breakdown
• Oso Ighodaro: Written breakdown | Video breakdown