Phoenix Suns start, bench, cut: Kevin Durant, Bradley Beal, Devin Booker

The Phoenix Suns enter the 2023-24 season with potentially the best trio of players in the entire NBA. It doesn’t get much better than Devin Booker, Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal, even if there are those out there who think this coming season will end the same way the last one did.

These three players combined for a whopping 80.7 points per game last season, and you can be sure head coach Frank Vogel will be building his entire offensive scheme around this fabulous trio. At least one of them will be on the court at all times.

But in a game of start, bench, cut — which of these three players is making the grade to be the top dog amongst the three?

It’s not that there are no wrong answers here, Beal is an All-Star who may have one more level to get to, while we all know both Durant and Booker are superstars of the highest level. They are the only pair of teammates who right now are top 10 players in the league, so that should tell you all you need to know about how difficult this is going to be.

This subject should also be approached by taking emotion out of the equation. Booker is Suns basketball through and through. Already a franchise icon who was recently voted the best Suns player in the history of the organization by our readers. An unenviable task then, but a great problem to have for this franchise.

Cut – Bradley Beal

There is little doubt Beal would start for a whole host of other teams here. What the Washington Wizards would do to have a player of his quality… But in such a competitive field, Beal finds himself getting cut by the Suns before ever even playing a single game for them.

It could be worse, nobody in their right mind out there would trade him for James Harden, but there will still be no complaints about Beal landing in this spot. He is a fantastic offensive player, one who has been unfairly pegged as the Ray Allen of this “Big 3”, when the reality is he is going to be so much more than that.

It is more likely Beal plays like the Allen who we saw with the Milwaukee Bucks and Seattle Supersonics. More than just a 3-point shooter (although he is a career 37.2 percent bomber for good measure), and somebody who will show a level of athleticism and verve around the basket that many seem to think has left him despite being only 30-years-old.

Unfortunately for Beal, there is no way he could even overtake either Booker or Durant here either. Even if he has the best offensive season of his career, he’s just not the other guys. If he can turn in an elite level defensive campaign – well he’s still just not quite as big and mobile as Booker on that end either.