3 ways the Phoenix Suns have adapted without Devin Booker

The Phoenix Suns continue to battle for positioning in the Western Conference down the stretch of the regular season, and they have had to do so recently without Devin Booker. Their superstar guard still missing after rolling an ankle late in a loss to the Houston Rockets.

Losing Booker for any stretch of the season was always going to hurt, yet the Suns have done an admirable job in his absence of trying to remain competitive. Having Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal on your team certainly helps, although center Jusuf Nurkic was just as important in the recent win over the Denver Nuggets.

With Booker's return still unknown, the Suns have started to adapt to playing without him, and we are beginning to see the results.

It is a credit to head coach Frank Vogel that each of these observations have mostly been a positive as well. Perhaps not what the Suns would do in an ideal world - but being able to survive and excel in other areas without a guy who puts up nearly 30 per game - is no mean feat.

The hope will be that the team can get Booker back out there as soon as possible. They have the toughest remaining schedule of any franchise in the league, and are not yet safe from being dragged into a play-in tournament dog fight. But until that happens, more of the below from the group will see the Suns remain competitive.

3. Jusuf Nurkic as point guard

That headline might be misleading, but it is fair to point out that Nurkic has handled the ball a lot more with Booker gone, and the results have not been bad. Against the Nuggets in particular, he sometimes brought the ball up and was generally the player who the guy out of bounds passed to in order to begin a possession too.

That might not seem like much, but what was a lot more impressive was a pass he had in the second-quarter to a cutting Durant for an and-one play. The idea of Nurkic with this starting group was always supposed to be a guy who could pass out of the paint, screen and move, and generally fill in the blanks offensively.

That he able to do that, but also shoulder a bit more of the creative load, is a massive an unexpected help with Booker currently out of the picture. Make no mistake, you wouldn't want Nurkic doing this in a playoff game for many possessions and he's still limited in what he can do. Having Durant and Bradley Beal as release valves if it all goes wrong is also a luxury.

But there are shades of Nikola Vucevic with the Orlando Magic to Nurkic in his role right now. Vucevic was a two-time All-Star and worlds better offensively with his shot-making and two-man game with their guards. But Nurkic is heavily involved and on some possessions since Booker went down, has his four teammates revolving around his movements. A nice wrinkle to see late in the season.

2. More jumbo lineups

With Booker not on the court, coach Vogel has had to tinker with some lineups and rotations in order to cover up for his absence. His scoring and passing ability can't be replicated, so instead the Suns have decided to just go in another direction entirely, and beat up on some of the smaller lineups in the league.

This was again most notable against the Nuggets, when the Suns had Durant, Nurkic and Bol Bol out on the court together at the same time. A trick they had also successsfully deployed in a win over the Los Angeles Lakers as well, although Booker was healthy at that point. With Eric Gordon also out there against the Nuggets, it gave them a guy who can also guard bigger wings too.

This meant Nurkic and Durant had a size advantage depending on the matchup, and it allowed Bol to do perhaps the only thing he is any good at defensively. Against the Lakers he annoyed Austin Reaves with his length - and in the game against the Nuggets - his long arms got in the way of Christian Braun having as big of an impact as he would have liked.

This might not seem like much - but if Bol can keep an opponent's fourth or fifth best scorer on the perimeter quiet - then he will be outperforming expectations. He still gets some rebounds just because of his sheer length, and not his IQ on that end, and having Nurkic and Durant cover for him and bang with bigger bodies helps. We will see more of this lineup, with and without Booker in it.

1. More 3-pointers taken

A strange quirk has arisen for the Suns this season, in that they added players like Grayson Allen and Royce O'Neale to hit a lot of shots from deep because of all of the space their star players afford those guys. Allen leads the league in 3-point shooting percentage, while O'Neale has already had a couple of occasions where he has gotten hot.

Yet despite this - and the fact Durant is also shooting over 40 percent from deep so far this campaign - the Suns rank a puzzling 26th in shots taken from beyond the arc per game, at 31.8. For context, the surging Boston Celtics take 42.3 a night. If the Suns have such good shooters in O'Neale, Gordon and especially Allen, why are they not taking more shots?

The answer is simple in that Booker, Durant and Beal take most of the shots on this team on a nightly basis. Nurkic also gets his inside as well. But with Booker now out of the picture, suddenly the role players are getting a few more looks than before, and the results in a small sample size have been interesting.

In the two games Booker has missed, the Suns have gone above league average (13th, 36.5) in 3-pointers taken, and are eighth in makes in that time at 39.7 percent. Coach Vogel would rather have Booker take those shots any day, such is his amazing ability, but this has been a nice development and something to watch come the postseason. They have the shooters, and they're shooting more.