Bradley Beal Should Thrive With Suns

The deeper impact of Bradley Beal’s addition to the Phoenix Suns.

Even after trading for Bradley Beal, many fans and even analysts are still skeptical about this Phoenix Suns team. While Beal isn’t a superstar per se, he will have a much more significant impact than people are giving him credit for.

Beal can handle the ball and take it to the rim himself, but he can also be an off-ball scorer. After the Suns traded for Kevin Durant last year, we saw glimpses of Booker’s playmaking coming alive. Now, he has another option to dish the ball out to while having the ability to knock down shots at a high level. The attention that both Booker and Durant now garner is insane, and defenses will have a hard time keeping up with a third elite scorer in the lineup.

Chris Paul brought elite playmaking - but that’s about it. He wasn’t a guy that the Suns could trust to take a big shot from beyond the arc in the playoffs. Now, they have a third option - that was previously a first option on his team. Furthermore, being that he was the first option, Beal is used to working against top defenders on a nightly basis. 

With Booker and Durant leading the way, he will likely have the opponents’ third-best defender on him for the majority of the game, providing a tasty matchup 

Beal is yet another weapon that defenses will have to worry about, and he poses a much bigger threat than Paul did in his time here. This should also create more opportunities for Booker and Durant to get one-on-one with their defenders, creating a great look for a bucket.

New Suns coach Frank Vogel is excited to see what a Beal-Booker backcourt looks like:

“I'm very comfortable with Beal and Booker as the starting backcourt, but we're going to explore that fifth spot potentially being a Cam Payne or a point guard, and we're going to explore it being a maybe ‘3,' ‘4' type defender position,” Vogel said. 

“Those things will play out in camp. I love the idea of getting those guys down the floor with a point guard and advancing it up to him and letting them attack. But I know that they can handle it on their own as well.

“The pace that we want to play with, I think most possessions are going to have different ball-handlers each time down. It's going to be a multiple ball-handler attack, but I'm comfortable with those guys."

One downside that is a little cause for concern is Beal’s playoff experience, but compared to Paul’s lack of success in the playoffs, it just about evens out. Will Beal be the piece that edges Phoenix over the Denver Nuggets? 

Who knows, but this team got a lot better over the offseason, and is a much scarier opponent for the rest of the league.