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There’s no question about which member of the Phoenix Suns’ Big 3 needed to adjust the most. While all three of Devin Booker, Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal have proven capable of playing on or off the ball, Booker had already established himself as an on-the-rise star and face of the franchise, while Durant was obviously one of the greatest scorers in NBA history.
It takes compromise for a superstar trio to work, and as the new guy, Beal was always going to be the “third member” of the Big 3 who had to accept his role would be different from the one he filled for a decade with the Washington Wizards.
A cascade of injuries turned that task into a game of “red light, green light,” but now that he and the rest of the Suns are healthy, Beal is wearing each and every hat they need him to try on.
“Brad’s really sacrificing for the betterment of this team,” coach Frank Vogel said.
“Sacrifice” isn’t a word one would normally associate with a guy who’s earning nearly $47 million this season, especially since he’s missed 29 games due to injury. But for a team that’s gone 9-7 since the All-Star break, Beal’s return from a hamstring injury couldn’t have come at a better time.
To hear Beal tell it, his struggles with a bad back, broken nose and strained hamstring made his perspective crystal clear. Whether it’s five minutes, 10 minutes or the full 48, Beal told his coach he won’t ever take the game for granted.
“I’m just happy to hoop,” Beal said. “I can’t be down on myself. And I can be obviously upset and obviously everybody’s upset, I wish I could have played the whole year, but you’re not in control of everything. I think that’s been my biggest challenge this year is patience. Understanding you’re not in control, understanding when it’s your time hoop and when you’re healthy, be ready to go.”
It’s showing on the court, since Beal’s return has once again galvanized the Suns as they enter a critical stretch. From Dec. 27 through the All-Star break, he helped Phoenix go 19-7 — the fourth-best record in the NBA over that timeframe — while ranking third in offensive rating and eighth in defensive rating.
Then a hamstring strain sidelined him for a few weeks, and the Suns struggled to regain their footing. They went 2-2 without him coming out of the break, then 0-2 in his first two games back as Booker sprained his ankle in the first of those.
Phoenix’s misfortune came at a particularly inconvenient time, with contenders like the Oklahoma City Thunder, Denver Nuggets, Boston Celtics (twice) and Milwaukee Bucks on deck. The Suns went 1-4 in those five litmus tests, and suddenly a supposed title contender wasn’t even a lock to make the playoffs.
Simply put, the Suns needed their Big 3 to be better. His numbers won’t leap off the page, but Beal decided to do the dirty work and set the tone for everyone else.
“We gotta come out with a lot better focus and a lot more sense of urgency than what we’ve been having,” Beal said after the blowout loss in Milwaukee. “It’s been way, way unacceptable, and we all know that, so we gotta be better these last 14 [games], really lock in, and it starts with us three and our attention to detail and our focus.”
So how has Bradley Beal stepped up for the Suns and put them back on the right track? Let’s take a look a few key needs he’s filled for this team.
The four games that Booker missed after Beal returned may prove to be a blessing in disguise. Without the Suns’ leading driver and one of their leading scorers, Beal upped his aggression. Aside from averaging 23.0 points per game over that four-game stretch, he also attacked the paint more often. Like, way more often:
“It’s always good for the offense when anybody gets downhill,” Durant said. “Brad’s dynamic in every area of scoring and passing, so it’s even better when he does it.”
On the season, Beal is averaging 11.8 drives per game — second on the team behind only Booker. But in the 11 games since Book first went down, Beal has averaged nearly 15 drives, shooting 62.5 percent on those drives. Beal has shot 66.3 percent at the rim this year, but over the last 11 games, he’s jumped to a staggering 76 percent.
With a quick first step, great balance on his drives and enough strength to finish through contact, Beal is a tough cover as a straight-line driver. But he also changes gears at will, downshifting at a moment’s notice to probe gaps in the defense like a prime Le’Veon Bell waiting for a hole to open up. His patience and ability to stop on a dime with a crossover, hesitation dribble or pump fake makes him impossible to keep out of the lane:
“When you can have somebody that can touch the paint with the shooting that we have around him, there’s huge value in that,” Vogel said.
The value extends beyond Beal’s own scoring, of course. With Point Book sidelined, the Suns relied more heavily on Beal to orchestrate offense, and in the 11 games since Book went down, Beal has averaged 7.0 assists per game — a significant jump from the 5.1 per game he’s averaging on the season.
Even with Booker back in the lineup, Beal is still averaging 8.2 assists per game over the last six contests. He hasn’t scored much, but he’s still been one of their most consistent weapons with Booker off working the rust and Durant having a few off shooting nights. Beal understood what the team needed from him, and he responded with the appropriate level of aggression and pace.
“I can get to the paint whenever I want, and I know that’s something that our team needs,” Beal said. “We have to do a better job of that. We facilitate a lot of our 3s that way, and I think that’s all it was. It’s just putting pressure on the rim and getting them to collapse their defense and find a way to get some easy layups and some easy 3s on kick-outs.”
Whether it’s been finding bigs for dump-offs in the pick-and-roll, hitting cutters on baseline drives, or spraying the ball back out to shooters once he gets into the paint, Beal has been drawing a crowd and moving the ball where it needs to go:
Vogel referred to it as “creating chain reactions” that help the Suns play at their best, with everyone making the extra pass. Booker is Phoenix’s best passer/scorer hybrid, but Beal’s rim pressure and ability to put Book and KD off-ball has helped Phoenix navigate this difficult stretch.
“A lot of talk about us having a point guard, not having a point guard, he’s doing a great job playing point guard for us,” Vogel said. “Playing the point guard, leading our team and quarterbacking.”
The Suns started using Beal as a primary initiator weeks before Beal and then Booker went down again. The idea was to get Book off the ball and allow him to go back into “kill mode,” while still capitalizing on Beal’s ability to open up the drive-and-kick game.
But over the last few weeks, the balance has shifted to allow Beal to operate in that role even more, and the Suns have benefitted.
Take two key stats that serve as a good barometer for Phoenix’s offense: This team is 20-3 when they record 30-plus assists, and they’re much more successful when they attempt at least 30 3-pointers (29-18) compared to when they fail to hit that mark (13-11).
Over the last 11 games, the Suns have averaged 34.3 3-point attempts and 29.5 assists per game, and Beal’s increased point guard duties have played a part in that.
“Coach is expecting Brad to play a role,” Durant explained. “He’s brought the ball up before, but I think he’s playing, like, traditional point guard right now, where he’s setting up the offense every single time down. He’s giving up shots for his teammates. He’s penetrating every time trying to kick out. So he’s one of those players that can do everything, and any situation you put him in, he’s gonna figure it out.”
This is where the “sacrifice” part comes in. Beal’s 14.1 shot attempts per game already represented his lowest average since his third NBA season, but over the last six games with Book back in the lineup, he’s taken just 11.0 shots per game. In the Suns’ last three wins, he’s attempted six, seven and 10 shots.
His efficiency has skyrocketed, but Beal admitted his point guard responsibilities were something he had to embrace after watching film and identifying what Phoenix truly needed. As a scorer who defines himself as a “rhythm guy,” he understands the balance to keeping himself involved while also getting other guys going — especially with world-class scorers like KD and Booker at his disposal.
“I still am attack mode, I still have the mindset of a scorer and still have that ability, but also understand that I have to be able to generate shots for us and get us good, quality looks and find ways to get guys open ones,” Beal explained. “Find ways to get Kev easy shots and just generate good offense. We know we can score. We know we’re very talented, but we still gotta make sure it’s flowing.”
Fortunately, the Suns have also tapped into Beal’s off-ball movement in order to gift him easier scoring opportunities. Beal has long been one of the NBA’s top cutters, and Vogel has put him in spots where they can use that skill-set to their advantage.
From flex screens on the baseline, to curling around pindowns, to backdoor cuts for either layups or kick-out 3s, the Suns are utilizing Beal’s constant motion to put defenses in rotation and make offense look easy:
Jusuf Nurkic has had most of the season to develop chemistry with Durant, but the opportunities with Beal have been less abundant. Fortunately, they’ve shown some great synergy over the last few weeks on those backdoor feeds.
“I have a really good continuity with Nurk, and his ability and trust his ability to be able to pass and playmake too,” Beal said. “But just everybody on the team just having an understanding of spot spacing, I think, makes it easier for us to kind of generate the offense we have. And I’m always gonna be in attack mode trying to get to the paint.”
After the Suns got torched for 82 points and 18 3s in the first half against Milwaukee, Vogel decided to switch things up on defense. The Suns were getting embarrassed, and despite his best efforts, Grayson Allen hadn’t been able to slow Damian Lillard down. So Vogel put Beal on him.
Heading into a matchup with Tyrese Maxey and the Philadelphia 76ers, Vogel again decided to try Beal out in that role of primary defensive stopper.
“He was the guy at the point of attack, and he did a phenomenal job,” Vogel said. “We saw him come in in the second half on Dame Lillard the other night and do a great job. We had Grayson on him early, and we decided to start Brad on him tonight, on Maxey. And he did a great job.”
Against the Sixers, Beal helped limit Tyrese Maxey to 6 points on 3-of-13 shooting. The next night against the Atlanta Hawks, Dejounte Murry got his 29 points, but they came on 11-of-26 shooting.
“He did it back-to-back nights — Maxey last night, Dejounte tonight,” Vogel said. “I can’t speak highly enough about the job that Bradley Beal’s doing right now.”
Vogel has periodically put Beal on tougher opposing matchups, including the likes of Zion Williamson earlier in the season. It’s a matter of managing his work load at this point, especially with Beal also juggling more point guard duties lately.
But as the Suns have seen time and time again over the last few weeks, Beal isn’t opposed to doing the dirty work and letting his numbers take a hit if it helps this team win.
“What I loved about Brad’s game is he wasn’t having the best offensive night, both with his actions, and he was the guy that didn’t get a lot of shots tonight in terms of trying to balance the Big 3, and he didn’t let that slow him down at all,” Vogel said. “He went out and guarded.”
Bradley Beal has had to adjust more than anyone — as the third member of a Big 3, as a point guard, and now as a primary defensive stopper. But for all the talk about injury woes, contract figures and lower scoring numbers, he’s finally healthy, and he’s providing exactly what the Suns need as they gear up for the playoffs.
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