The Phoenix Suns displayed exactly what the fans wanted to see for their first taste of basketball from the purple and orange in 150 days. That’s a long time without seeing Devin Booker and Kevin Durant.
Of course, the Suns added Bradley Beal this offseason, and while some skeptics out there probably don’t think it will work with those three, it sure looked good on Sunday. Of course, it is preseason game one, so we won’t overreact too much; however, we saw everything we wanted to see.
The Suns’ big three did everything they were supposed to in the little time they were on the floor together. Durant, Beal, and Booker, who played a bit of point guard, each played 13, 14, and 15 minutes in the first preseason game, yet all showed flashes of elite play together, and what we could see throughout 2023-24.
No one took too many shots, took bad shots, played outside the offense, or anything like that. Everything was in harmony. As we said, we don’t want to overreact, but after hearing what the Suns’ new head coach said after the game, it’s hard not to.
“A peek of what we can be offensively,” Vogel said after the game. “Obviously, it looks great on paper with the firepower we have, but those guys were really clicking and were comfortable. You know the system we have them in. I was more impressed with our attention to detail defensively. Because we were guarding, we were able to get into an offensive rhythm.”
To say that that is just a peek of what the Suns offense is like should put Suns’ fans over the moon. They were up by nearly 30 a few different times. They did it with their bench unit while Kevin Durant and Devin Booker were back in street clothes. They almost blew that huge lead and went into overtime, but that happens when you play all bench players.
The bench played great, too. Depth was said to be an issue by a lot of media who don’t really follow this team, but it’s looking like that could be false. Grayson Allen had himself a huge game, while Yuta Watanabe and Drew Eubanks’ stock also went up.
This offense was great, and Vogel is right; often, their defense set up the offense and put them in positions to be successful. The Suns have something special breaking here, and it’s easy to see that without overreacting.