The Phoenix Suns went and got their business done early this offseason, turning Chris Paul and Landry Shamet into the much more appealing Bradley Beal. A three-time All-Star who has toiled away on an aimless Washington Wizards franchise for the duration of his career so far.
Now 30-years-old, Beal arrives in Phoenix with no signature playoff run to call his own, and a desire to help the organization to win their first ever championship. The Suns have constructed the league’s only “Big 4”, at a time when the recently revealed CBA should make it harder than ever to achieve this.
There is a lot of pressure on Beal to prove that he was the missing piece of this expensive championship puzzle, but he is going to have to take his game up a notch.
Beal of course will be expected to be the third option on a team featuring Devin Booker and Kevin Durant, and to the credit of Beal, he has said all of the right things regarding his place in the pecking order so far. Still, this isn’t going to be as simple as morphing into late career Ray Allen on the Miami Heat and taking open jumpers.
That’s a role more likely to be opened for this guy, meaning Beal is actually going to have to turn in the best season of his career, in what will be year 12 for him, if this deal is going to look like the master stroke that owner Mat Ishbia hopes that it will be.
This roster is now set and going nowhere, and the championship window of the franchise is as open as it will ever be. Here is how Beal can have the most positive impact possible, and entrench himself as a fan favorite from the off next season. Failure is not an option, but neither is mediocrity, which is why 2023-24 is incredibly important for Beal.