New trend developing early for Suns that fans are going to love

Despite flaming out badly in the playoffs last season, the Phoenix Suns actually did a few things right on the way to winning 49 regular season games. Chief among them was 3-point shooting percentage, with Grayson Allen - who had a career year - leading the entire league at 46.1 percent.

Forgotten about behind Allen's exploits was the fact that Bradley Beal finished sixth in this category at 43 percent, while Kevin Durant ended in 23rd position having converted 41.3 percent of his efforts. That's three elite players at the most desirable skill in the entire league, yet the franchise as a whole took only 32.6 shots each night. Only five teams took fewer.

You'll be delighted to know then, that this number is rapidly changing.

Head coach Mike Budenholzer said all of the right things at media day recently above being a more creative and free-flowing offensive unit this season. The introduction of an actual point guard in Tyus Jones was supposed to help - and early returns have been good - with the hope that Durant, Beal and Devin Booker could go out there and do their thing.

There has to be some structure and game plan to fall back on though, and the early returns in preseason have been extremely promising. Center Jusuf Nurkic hasn't played yet as a result of a finger issue that shouldn't keep him out too much longer, but coach Budenholzer even wants him taking more shots from deep when he does make it back onto the court.

Yet even without their traditional big attempting to do untraditional - Brook Lopez like things - the Suns through a pair of preseason contests have attempted a whopping 85 shots from beyond the arc. They may have only converted on 37.6 percent of those efforts - down slightly on the 38.2 percent of a year ago - but the math is going to soon turn in their favor if they continue.

At the rate they're hoisting these shots up right now - and really there's no reason this is going to stop once the regular season begins, if anything it is only going to keep climbing north - they are going to sit in the top five in attempts from deep for much of the season. Already their 42.5 each night would match the number put up by the Boston Celtics last year, who led the league in this category.

This bodes well for the Suns, because of their aforementioned elite shooters from deep. This is a roster that also boasts Royce O'Neale, while Booker is no slouch himself from 3-point territory. Last season he took 6.1 each game, but you can bet that he'll be told to take even more. Similarly with Durant - the new efficiency king - he's going to get a ton of opportunities.

This obvious and easy wrinkle for coach Budenholzer to introduce could also breath new life into the careers of fringe players like Bol Bol in The Valley. He's not able to do much outside of make a shot from downtown with his outrageous frame (42.3 percent last season on 1.2 attempts per game), and if he can be hidden defensively, this coaching staff might just find a role for him.

It seems obvious given the league moved towards this way of playing nearly a decade ago now, and it was puzzling to see previous leading man Frank Vogel instead draw up some stogy plays last time out. When you have three stars and some elite marksmen, sometimes it really is as simple as creating space and letting those shots fly. Coach Bud has copped this early, and the returns look brilliant.