3 Storylines to watch out for at Suns' media day

The 2024-25 NBA Season is inching closer, with the Phoenix Suns having their official media day to open the campaign at the end of this month. If you cast your mind back 12 months, fans and media alike were eager to get a look at a franchise that had recently shipped out both Deandre Ayton and Chris Paul.

On that occasion the vibes were high, with Devin Booker looking like the king of the Phoenix castle like we all know he is, center Jusuf Nurkic saying all of the right things about his role with the group, and head coach Frank Vogel optimistic about what the team could do on both ends of the court each night.

A year has gone by, and we now have more questions than answers.

The Suns were active in filling out the back end of their roster - although some former Suns may pop up in California this year - and are now legitimately nine deep. If anything they have too many players and not enough roles to put them in, it is hard to see where Monte Morris fits in all of this, but options are good to have if injuries strike.

3. How Mike Budenholzer approaches the media

New head coach Mike Budenholzer arrives in Phoenix as an Arizona native, and somebody who is clearly thrilled to get the chance to coach this team. He beat the Suns in the 2021 NBA Finals with the Milwaukee Bucks, and arrives with that championship pedigree. Then again, so did coach Vogel, and we all know how that played out.

It will be interesting to see what coach Budenholzer's philosophy will be for this group, and how much of it he is willing to share with the assembled media. In theory this roster should be one of the best offensively in the league - they've certainly got the lineups to blow opponents away - and Budenholzer himself is something of an offensive specialist himself.

Yet the Suns and coach Bud are both underrated on the other end, and the new additions such as Mason Plumlee and rookie Oso Ighodaro could help more than expected too. Last season the Suns ranked an impressive 12th in defensive rating (113.7), a figure coach Vogel deserves a lot of credit for.

But it was the players themselves who achieved this, despite having a center rotation that consisted of Nurkic and Drew Eubanks, and guys like Bol Bol who are well below average defensively. The year the Bucks won the title their regular season defensive rating (110.7) was good for ninth in the league. How confident coach Budenholzer is in their abilities on that end is something to keep an eye on.

2. The point guard situation

It was telling that new point guard Tyus Jones mentioned after being unveiled as a Suns player that he expects to start at the point this season - information revealed by the recently retired Adrian Wojnarowski - despite the fact it is unclear who will make way for that to be the case.

This team certainly needs to do a better job of taking care of the basketball - they had the worse assist-to-turnover ratio in the league at 2.15 last season - and Jones will help with that immediately. So will it be Grayson Allen who is forced to come off the bench and try to make the sixth man role his own? Seems harsh given he had a career year and led the league in 3-point shooting (46.1 percent).

What about Bradley Beal? It would seem unlikely for the organization to ask a 31-year-old making over $50 million this year alone to come off the bench only one year removed from trading for him. Even if that actually is the best course of action. Booker and Durant are obviously untouchable, and Nurkic is the starting center for a reason.

If Jones heads to media day as bullish as ever on starting, it could make things awkward. That is to say nothing of Monte Morris and where he fits into all of this (this writer's views on that particular subject making him very unpopular on Suns Reddit). The Suns need floor generals out there at all times and Jones was an amazing get, but that doesn't mean making this work will be easy.

1. The vibes with Kevin Durant

At the Suns' last media day, Durant spoke about how this was undoubtedly Booker's team (which it is), and that he was happy to be the second option behind a superstar who could still have a couple of levels to go before reaching his true peak. Nothing will have changed in that regard, except Durant is soon to be 36-years-old.

His chances of winning another championship continue to lessen, and last season his second option act - which included some wonderful work on the defensive end - helped led the team to 49 wins and a first round exit at the hands of the Minnesota Timberwolves. Not what Durant signed up for when he came to The Valley.

On top of that, Durant was without doubt the Suns' best player for stretches last season. He also managed to remain healthier than both Beal (not hard), but also Booker (impressive). He led the team in minutes played per game (37.2), and his games played (75) was only one shy of Nurkic, who led the team with 76.

This isn't meant to insinuate that Durant's history of jumping teams and asking for a trade is going to happen again. Rather it could be that he comes to media day with the attitude that he can and will take more responsibility than he already has on his shoulders. Given how both Booker and Durant played with Team USA this summer, Booker will surely be cool with this as well.