Aggressive Bradley Beal the key to balancing 'multiple ball-handler attack' for Suns Big 3

This may sound familiar, but Bradley Beal is doing whatever the Phoenix Suns need him to do in order to win games. No member of the Big 3 — or the Suns in general — has had to adjust more than the former Washington Wizards star, who’s recently taken on more point guard duties on one end and primary defensive matchups on the other.

His 33-point outing in Sunday’s game was loud, but Beal has quietly filled a number of holes for the Suns whenever he’s been healthy.

“Brad does everything,” Royce O’Neale said. “Defensively, he’s setting the tone, being a point guard, getting guys open looks, and then whether he has to score or not himself, that’s what he’s doing. Brad is one of the key guys on this team. I think his leadership and everything sets the tone for everybody else.”

It hasn’t been smooth sailing all year, of course. Beal has only played in 49 of Phoenix’s 77 games due to a number of injuries, which in turn has meant only 37 games with the Big 3 active. More frustratingly, the injuries have come in waves, depriving Beal, Devin Booker and Kevin Durant of extended opportunities to string together momentum and settle into more defined roles.

Early in the season, especially with Beal sidelined, it was a lot of Point Book. Then KD had to initiate quite a bit of offense when Beal and/or Book was out. Then there was a recent stretch where Booker sprained his ankle and Beal had to take the reins. During that time, Phoenix realized the benefits of Beal’s ability to get into the lane and distribute. Frank Vogel has repeatedly called Beal their “best paint toucher,” and when Booker returned, Beal continued to fulfill his ever-changing role.

“I’m embracing it,” Beal said of his increased point guard duties. “I think a lot of my FanDuel fans don’t like it ’cause I don’t score as much. So I hear that on the backend of it, but I embrace it, man, ’cause it’s bringing us a winning culture. Getting a paint presence every time down the floor, getting us organized to make sure we have a good flow, continuity within the game.”

For a one-month stretch that began with Booker’s absence, Beal averaged 6.6 assists a night. And although his field-goal attempts dropped to 12.8 per game, the Suns have ranked fourth in the NBA in assists per game since the start of March. Keep in mind, this was a guy who was taking 18-22 shots a night as the Wizards’ leading scorer for years. But it wasn’t a lack of aggression; it was doing the dirty work his team needed in order to help this Big 3 strike the right balance.

“We’re asking him to initiate and run the team more than he’s done in the past, so his field-goal attempts are down slightly over the last few weeks, but that’s by design,” Vogel explained. “It’s something that’s really working for us in terms of getting those three guys working together.”

Beal’s willingness to sacrifice was its own quiet form of leadership. He’s not the same caliber of “lead by example” guy like KD or Booker, but his handling of the point guard role — especially when it comes to rewarding players on offense — speaks volumes about what he provides as a primary initiator and team-first leader.

Beal described how he grew to understand the impact that a star player can have on the rest of the teammates.

“That’s something that me, K and Book always talk about, like, our approach, our leadership, our body language, all those things impact the rest of your team, and it took me being here to realize that,” Beal said. “When I was in D.C., I was like, ‘Man, what the —? Fuck that, everybody’s gotta be ready to play. If I’m ready, everybody should be ready.’ But it’s not like that.

“When your top guys are in it, when your top guys are encouraging you, your top guys are giving you confidence, your top guys are passing the ball, that makes you feel good as a player. It makes you want to run through a wall, it makes you want to do everything you can for the team. So it’s kinda surreal for me to be in this position, and I definitely see it in a bigger lens now and the impact that it has of just incorporating guys, picking guys up.”

Bradley Beal basically turned himself into Mike Conley and now we look pretty rock solid on both ends

— Sam Cooper (@scooperhoops) April 4, 2024

Of course, the Suns don’t want Beal to be Rajon Rondo either. His willingness to embrace those point guard responsibilities opened up some high-scoring nights for Booker and Durant, but defenses have since adjusted, almost daring Beal — a guy who averaged 30 points per game in back-to-back seasons not to long ago — to beat them.

Just a few weeks after adjusting to a slightly different role, the pendulum needed to swing back to who Bradley Beal truly was.

“It’s been a challenge,” Beal admitted after the Suns’ recent win over the Cleveland Cavaliers. “Obviously I have a score-first mentality, and there’s probably some shots I pass up just trying to be cognizant of being in that role, but I think I definitely have to be a little bit more aggressive too while I’m playing point, just to keep teams honest. I think I’m driving a lot and they know I’m like looking to pass and not looking to lay it up, so they’re kind of staying home on a lot of drives.”

Beal only had 7 points on nine shots against the Cavs, and Booker and Durant publicly reinforced what they’d been telling him behind closed doors: Keep looking for your shots.

“I think the more aggressive he is, it opens up for everybody,” Booker said.

“I think he could shoot more, but his approach to the game has been team-first, and that’s only helped us out,” Durant added. “But I think moving forward, him being more aggressive is what we’d like to see.”

2 examples in first clip below.

You have to turn that first corner with purpose in Spain to allow everything else to open up. https://t.co/AJedGCDciq

— David (@theIVpointplay) April 5, 2024

Beal took the message to heart. Although he only finished with 14 points on 6-of-9 shooting against the Minnesota Timberwolves the next game, he only played 27 minutes thanks to the fourth quarter effectively being garbage time. Beal was noticeably more aggressive in looking to score, and his coach and teammates undoubtedly played a role in that.

“Yeah, K’s been on my ass about it,” Beal said with a laugh. “I’m just trying to find the balance of it, ’cause they’re in a great flow, him and Book, and I wanna keep that going, especially this time of the year. And it’s not like I’m shooting bad. I’m shooting 50, 40, and 80 from the line. So I’m shooting good percentages, it’s just up-ticking it a little bit more on the volume.”

The Suns dropped their next game against the New Orleans Pelicans, but the biggest silver lining was Beal being even more aggressive, finishing with a team-high 33 points and 5 assists on 13-of-19 shooting, including 7-for-8 from deep.

“About two games ago, he was trying to play the right way and touch the paint, generate offense for others, and [it] felt like he was maybe being just a little too unselfish,” Vogel said. “Asked him just turn to the knob back into score mode just a little bit, and he’s gotten really aggressive the last two games.”

When Beal ignited for a quick 10-0 run to start the fourth quarter and scored 13 straight points for the Suns, the home crowd was the loudest it had been in weeks. It felt like his “welcome to Phoenix” moment.

“He played with emotion and passion and energy,” Durant said. “Always [does], but it showed a little bit more in his face and his body language tonight. He making shots like that, it’s just exciting for everybody.”

Perhaps more importantly, it felt like an important step for a team whose well-documented fourth-quarter struggles usually start in the opening minutes when Booker rests. Beal feels more comfortable with those bench-heavy lineups now that the rotation is a little more stable, and although he didn’t care about how many points he scored in a loss, the game still served as a reminder of what he’s capable of.

When opponents divert too much attention to Booker and Durant, Beal is the unfair third option who can elevate Phoenix to a whole different level.

“I think they were trying to hide several defenders on me ’cause they figured I don’t shoot as much, but I’m not allowing that to happen anymore,” Beal said. “I was kind of just reprogramming my mind of just being aggressive, and my teammates and coaches all instill that in me too is to just be aggressive. ‘Look for your shot, stop always looking to just create and pass when you attack.’ But at the same time, it keeps defenses honest, man. Everybody out there has to guard.”

In that way, the Suns are slowly pushing toward the “multiple ball-handler attack” Vogel has been touting since the offseason. It’s been a long-winding process delayed by injury, but anyone still wondering about who this team’s point guard is hasn’t been paying attention: The point isn’t which one of the Big 3 is the designated point guard; it’s that at any given moment, any one of them can initiate actions. Empowering all three on or off the ball is the entire point.

“It’s coming together,” Vogel said before the Wolves game. “It’s still imperfect. I think Brad is maybe over-rotating a little bit in terms of how much I’m asking him to play point guard and to really touch the paint and facilitate for others. He’s generating a lot of offense for us, but we want him to score the ball too. But that’s just a great player being unselfish.”

Beal figuring out the right balance between scoring and facilitating may be the final missing piece that pushes the Suns offense into truly unstoppable territory.

“That’s what we’re gonna need from him going forward, and it’s good that he can play different roles and he’s learning different roles — playing the point guard, guarding some of the best players in the league, having to score for us in that start of the fourth quarter like he did tonight,” Durant said. “I know it’s later in the season, but every rep is important and there’s an opportunity for us to grow, and you can see that Brad is accepting his role on the team.”

As Durant noted, those reps are crucial for a Big 3 that’s only spent 755 minutes over 37 games together, and being able to play multiple roles is just as critical.

Each one has their strengths and weaknesses in the “point guard” role. Booker is the best passer of the three; after all, during that one-month stretch where Beal took on more playmaking, Booker still led the team with 7.3 assists per game. When he’s in attack mode, putting the ball in the hands of your best scorer/playmaker hybrid isn’t a bad idea!

But at times, Booker gets bogged down in dual roles. Putting him primarily on the ball leaves him susceptible to blitzes that take him out of plays, and it deprives the Suns of his immense value as an off-ball threat.

Durant has the most gravity of the three, routinely drawing doubles in the post and on the wing that he’s usually comfortable passing out of. But he’s prone to some of Phoenix’s sloppiest turnovers, and those plays take a physical toll. So for the sake of variety (and because he’s near 7-feet tall and can pass over blitzes), the Suns can use him as a primary initiator to keep defenses on their toes while allowing Book or Beal to work off the ball.

“It’s one of the things we’ve done a little bit more of late, is when Brad and KD are out there alone, and even when it’s just Brad and Book, sometimes KD brings it more with those groups than when all three are out there together and gets those other guys in off-ball screening action,” Vogel said. “Not just the guy with the basketball coming down and playing pick-and-roll.”

Finally, Beal is a walking paint touch and the most consistent source of rim pressure, which collapses defenses and opens up the drive-and-kick game. He just has to stay aggressive enough as a scorer to force defenses into scramble situations, rather than driving to pass.

“I think there’s gonna be times where we all are gonna have our chances to initiate and get guys going,” Durant said. “And Brad has done a good job of making the extra pass, getting into the lane, finding guys.”

Finding the balance for all three has been an ongoing process, but Vogel likes where it’s at.

“It’s truly something that we’ve grown and evolved throughout the course of the season to balance those three guys when they’re on the floor,” Vogel explained. “Because obviously just putting those guys together, and the three guys that are used to playing with a point guard setting them up, but also blending certain stretches of their games where they’re handling. So we’ve continued to evolve throughout the course of the season, even in the last couple of weeks.”

Notice in how many of those clips, it was irrelevant who brought the ball up like a traditional “point guard” would? Or how many assists came from secondary actions where the Big 3 would’ve been involved even with a traditional point guard setting the table? Whether it’s Booker, Durant, Beal, Jusuf Nurkic, Grayson Allen or Eric Gordon bringing the ball up, the Suns’ approach remains the same: Move the ball, draw two to the basketball, and attack those coverages.

“I’m always a believer in, if there’s two on the ball, get off it, play advantage basketball on the backside, especially when you have Kevin Durant, Bradley Beal, Grayson Allen and Nurkic on the backside,” Booker said. “So I keep talking about the spacing. I think none of us are used to having somebody else being doubled on the floor, so finding that spacing out of it should lead into an open shot or a layup every time.”

Ideally, the Suns get stops and allow defensive rebounds and turnovers to fuel the transition game, where they’re No. 1 in the league in points per possession. At that point, it doesn’t matter who’s bringing the ball up as long as they’re attacking cross-matches against an unset defense.

But even in the half-court, the Suns have three players who demand defenses’ attention in similar yet distinct ways. Learning to capitalize on those, while keeping all three in attack mode, is a delicate balance that has understandably needed more time than just 37 games spread so sporadically throughout the season.

As we discovered with our in-depth look at the turnover problem, that lack of time together is a partial cause behind a lot of their miscues. It’s also a reason initial actions sometimes devolve into stagnant offense, with Phoenix ranking fifth in isolation frequency but only 14th in points per possession on those isos.

Hunting pigeons and targeting mismatches becomes a major advantage in a playoff setting, but the Suns still have to keep everyone engaged on offense while also making opposing defenses work.

“Obviously we have good guys who can score and go one-on-one against anybody in the league, but at the same time, that gets tough when you have four other set of eyes watching you,” Beal explained. “They can load up, make adjustments and make it tough for you in the one-on-one game. But keeping that person, whoever that target is, involved in different actions — whether it’s pick-and-rolls, DHOs or pindowns, running off screens — that keeps them engaged, that keeps them from hiding.”

If the Suns can get more comfortable in that balance with the Big 3 playing on and off the ball, and if they can cut down on a few turnovers, there won’t be anywhere for opponents to hide.