Bradley Beal 2024-25 Suns season preview: What will his ever-changing role be in Year 2?

Bradley Beal has had to adjust more than anyone in the Big 3, but now that the Phoenix Suns have a starting point guard and a new head coach, what will Beal’s role actually look like under Mike Budenholzer?

Over the last two days of the week, we’ll be wrapping up our Suns season preview series that’s gone through all 17 players on the roster, one-by-one. That includes both a written piece for the avid readers (hello there!) and a video breakdown for the visual learners.

On Day 16, we’re diving into Bradley Beal, the strengths of his game that Phoenix needs to tap into, and what his overall role should look like (and no, it’s not sixth man).

Bradley Beal 2024-25 Suns Season Preview

Between Devin Booker, Kevin Durant and an actual point guard, Beal will have to continue being comfortable as a spot-up shooter off the ball. Those guys might all have the ball in their hands more than Beal, and they’ll all draw plenty of attention. Having Beal in the weak-side corner in those situations feels downright unfair.

Last year, Beal shot a career-high 43 percent from 3. He ranked in the 86th percentile in points per possession on spot-up looks, per The BBall Index, and he made 43.2 percent of his corner 3s, 43.6 percent of his catch-and-shoot 3s, and 50 percent of his wide-open 3s.

Beal only ranked in the 63rd percentile in openness rating, but Budenholzer’s offense, the arrival of pass-first guards like Tyus Jones and Monte Morris, and a year of familiarity should help that number go up.

Another number that needs to go up? Beal’s 4.4 long-range attempts per game. At Suns Media Day, Beal joked, “We don’t have a choice” when asked about having to take more 3s in Budenholzer’s system. Before training camp had even started, Bud was laying the groundwork.

“Coach Bud pulled me in his office the other day and showed me like five or six clips of me literally passing up 3s and driving into defenses and turning the ball over, driving into defenses and shooting a long 2,” Beal said. “And it’s like, ‘Just shoot the 3.'”

You can already see Budenholzer’s philosophy shine through Beal’s thought process in the preseason, but when Beal’s been asked about it, he’s fully acknowledged that it’s been an adjustment.

“You see I’m trying to get there,” Beal said with a smirk. “I’m trying to program myself to just be more aggressive. Bud is forcing me to do that. He’s forcing all of us to be like that. Like, shoot more 3s, look to shoot, look to be aggressive. That’s different in a lot of ways. So we’re all trying to kind of program ourselves to stop passing up shots, be more mindful of shooting 3s.

“Like, I shot a step-back 2 at the top of the key and I was mad. I’m like, ‘Shit, I take one more step back, that’s a 3.’”

But the Suns aren’t just going to relegate an all-around hooper like Bradley Beal to the corner, and everyone seems excited about the prospect of having point guards that will allow him to return to a more familiar, off-ball role.

“I can definitely go back to being the Brad we all have hoped,” Beal said. “I’m excited for it for sure. I’ll still have some ball-handling responsibilities, but obviously not being a focal, primary point guard, which helps all of us. It helps me, helps Book, helps K, helps Grayson, helps all of us because now we can go back to being in our traditional roles and we can flourish in what we’ve done well and got us to this point in our careers.”

Helping Bradley Beal be Bradley Beal again

So what does Bradley Beal being Bradley Beal look like? For starters, putting more pressure on the rim. The Suns ranked 25th in their frequency of shots at the rim, but Beal gave them a consistent driver who ranked in the 90th percentile in drives per 75 possessions and the 77th percentile in his percentage of unassisted makes at the rim.

For all the concerns about his injury history and age now that he’s 31, Beal still has impressive burst, a lightning-quick first step, clever footwork around the basket and underrated strength finishing through defenders despite his compact frame.

Per Cleaning The Glass, Beal shot 70 percent at the rim last year, which ranked in the 87th percentile among guards. His drives aren’t just about going one-on-one though, since he usually draws in help defenders, allowing him to find bigs in the dunker’s spot, cutters in the lane or shooters in the corners.

Another staple of Bradley Beal’s game is dribble handoffs. According to The BBall Index, Beal ranked in the 96th and 97th percentile in points per possession on DHOs in each of the last two seasons.

“I lived off DHOs in Washington,” Beal said. “That’s pretty much all I did. But that’s one thing I love about Nurk, just his ability to be able to playmake.”

He and Jusuf Nurkic can really shine in this area together, but Beal said Mason Plumlee and Oso Ighodaro are fully capable of making those reads too.

To that point, we can’t go any further without talking about Beal’s exceptional cutting. In Washington, Beal was constantly moving off the ball, ranking in the 89th, 89th, 99th and 93rd percentile in movement points per 100 possessions over his last four years with the Wizards.

“Just his athletic ability, man,” said Monte Morris, Beal’s former Wizards teammate and current Suns teammate. “Brad is super fast, quick, and he’s another three-level scorer who can finish at the rim.”

Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see that guy as much in Phoenix, as Beal plummeted to the 59th percentile in movement points per 100 possessions last year. With a new offensive system designed to produce more 3s and actual point guards in the fold, there’s hope they can tap back into Beal’s intuitive, constant cutting.

“That’s just playing off the ball more,” Beal said. “I think the way Bud wants to play in with space, kind of a five-out approach at times, like, we have no choice but somebody’s gotta cut, you know? Somebody’s gotta go back door. But that opens the lane for those cuts, for those opportunities. So it’s definitely something to thrive in.”

Beal had placed in the 85th percentile in points per possession off cuts for three straight years before dropping to the 45th percentile in Phoenix. The same was true for off-screen possessions, as Beal went from being in the 97th percentile or better that category for four straight years in Washington to just the 78th percentile on the Suns.

“Brad is just so athletic, and I think when guys apply their athleticism away from the ball and off the ball in smart ways, it can be really hard to guard,” Budenholzer said. “He can be hard to guard. So hopefully we can put him in some environments and some situations to take advantage of that, and then he just reads the game and does it naturally.”

Another area the Suns will probably tap into more often is Beal’s ability to set screens and attack as the roller. He has no problem catching it in the short roll and going up with a quick middy, but he also employs quick decision-making when kicking it to the open man on the perimeter.

The Suns really didn’t lean into these types of inverted pick-and-rolls — where the guard operates as the screener — enough last season, but the Wizards did it a lot during Beal’s last year in D.C. He set 7.0 ball-screens per game that season, and it’s a skill that puts defenders at an automatic disadvantage when he screens for KD or Book.

Beal ranked in the 77th percentile in screening talent last year, and thankfully, it sounds like Budenholzer wants to lean into those abilities with both Beal and Booker.

“I think the whole league, it’s the different combinations and trying to mix up and just try and get advantages for people,” Budenholzer said. “Their athleticism, their kind of smarts, both Brad and Book are smart and can kind of [use] some of the tricks and some of the little nuances to being screeners, whether it be slipping out and catching-and-shooting 3s or going catches or rolling and different things like that and then becoming playmakers. So just trying to put good players in good spots.”

Finally, as much as Bradley Beal can operate as a screener, he’s no slouch on the ball either! Beal can free himself up coming off screens, ranking in the NBA’s 96th percentile in points per possession as a pick-and-roll ball-handler. But he made the right reads in those situations as well.

“His playmaking, I feel like, is underrated,” Morris said. “When he comes off ball screens, he actually makes the right reads in the pocket or he hits his skip. So I feel like that layer will be shown too.”

As Morris alluded to, Beal knows how to patiently probe a defense before finding open shooters or even slowly weaving his way through the lane, just waiting for something to open up. He no longer has to worry about point guard duties, but his pick-and-roll playmaking is another weapon in the utility belt of a Suns team that wants to play random.

“The guys that we brought in are phenomenal playing off the ball, so he doesn’t have to lose the opportunity to be the primary initiator, ball-handler and think aggressively offensively,” James Jones said.

Will it be a bounce-back year for Bradley Beal?

So what’s the biggest key for Bradley Beal to “get back to Bradley Beal”?

“I think he just needs to be on the court,” Devin Booker said. “I think the times that he played, he played super well. He played hard and he was super competitive. So I think that’s Brad just being hard on himself, but he’s the type of guy that I want to go to war with any day.”

As Book mentioned, it might just come down to staying healthier after Beal missed 29 games last year with a barrage of different injuries. That constant struggle to get on the court took a mental and physical toll last year, but Beal said he’s in a better headspace.

“One thing I didn’t do, and it’s my main focus and goal this year, is have fun,” Beal said. “The whole [last] year, I’m frustrated, you’re trying to play catch up, you’re trying to prove that you want to be on the team, prove that you want to be on the floor, and you just never could really get two feet on the ground. So now, I have those two feet on the ground. I have no excuses. I’m very healthy going into a year on an unbelievable team. Enjoy that. Enjoy being where I am.”

Hopefully, better health, a new system, an upgraded roster and a new coach all contribute to a more comfortable role for Bradley Beal in Year 2 with the Suns. These glimpses of Brad being Brad were fun, but Phoenix needs more of that this year:

The midrange attempts will come down, he’ll still have to sacrifice the most out of the Big 3, and his role has the biggest question marks around it. Beal said he’s down 20 pounds to regain more of his explosiveness, which could present challenges on the defensive end for an undersized lineup that relied on Beal to tackle bigger matchups last year.

But there’s no question an empowered Brad Beal makes the Suns dangerous, and while he’ll need to adjust as the third member of a Big 3, his shot-making, driving, screening and well-rounded bucket-getting could help this team reach a new level offensively.

“I’m blessed now and happy that we’re built in a way to where I don’t have to take on a lot of those roles that I did last year, and I can just focus on being Brad,” Beal said. “I can be aggressive. I can look at the score. I can just be who you guys know me to be.”

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
• Bol Bol: Written breakdown | Video breakdown
• Damion Lee: Written breakdown | Video breakdown
• Josh Okogie: Written breakdown | Video breakdown
• Monte Morris: Written breakdown | Video breakdown
• Mason Plumlee: Written breakdown | Video breakdown
• Royce O’Neale: Written breakdown | Video breakdown
• Grayson Allen: Written breakdown | Video breakdown
• Jusuf Nurkic: Written breakdown | Video breakdown
• Tyus Jones: Written breakdown | Video breakdown
• Kevin Durant: Written breakdown | Video breakdown