2. Get Bradley Beal on the court
It would be great to see Booker out there in some of these games. After all he was the best player on the court during an opening night win over the Golden State Warriors that also featured Durant, Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson.
But seeing Beal at any stage would be huge. This “back tweak” that he has been dealing with is an injury the Suns have been extremely cautious with. To hear Beal talk during the limited media availability he has had since the start of the regular season, he sounds like he could be out there playing right now if he really wanted to.
Backs are not ankles, and the organization are right to proceed with caution here. The plan is to have their “Big 3” firing on all cylinders next May, and if missing out on some regular season games in November achieves that goal, then so be it.
But the Suns need to balance this situation carefully, because they don’t want to do what the Lakers did last season and dig themselves into a regular season hole early that requires a ton of effort from their superstars to get them out of. So seeing Beal on the court, even on a minutes restriction, would be huge.
It would also be interesting to see how Durant and Beal worked together, assuming Booker is unable to play. Beal has scored over 30 points per game twice in his career, and he would provide a new dimension to the offensive play of the team. Most of the role players have stepped up early in the season, but they can’t do with Beal can on a nightly basis, and the Suns need that right now.