Wait a minute... Bradley Beal might actually be back

Look we know ok? It's only preseason - and two games at that - and the worst thing you can do at this time of the year is read too much into anything. But through a pair of wins over the Los Angeles Lakers and Detroit Pistons, the Phoenix Suns have looked cohesive and loose.

Two words that most certainly would not be used to describe their 2023-24 campaign, which promised so much but ended with them being flattened by the Minnesota Timberwolves in the playoffs. So we're approaching these nothing games with caution, we promise we are. Which is why we're going to whisper the following sentence.

Bradley Beal sure is looking good out there huh?

We don't even blame you if you haven't really been paying attention. It's not like Beal has taken either game by the scruff of the neck and his numbers have been pretty pedestrian. He's also not this good either, as he recently claimed to be.

But if you look a little more closely, there's definitely something there. A bit of pop on both ends of the court, that zip we saw in his Washington Wizards days. Definitely more like the kind of guy who apparently nearly got traded for Khris Middleton and sent to the Milwaukee Bucks not too long ago.

Beal looks healthy - but just as important - he also looks a lot more comfortable than he did last season. Perhaps playing for a new head coach in Mike Budenholzer is exactly what he needed to get back to what looks like close to his best in The Valley. Maybe it's those energetic rookies in Ryan Dunn and Oso Ighodaro who allowed him to turn back the clock some.

Whatever it is, this version of Beal is exactly what the Suns signed up for, and it also may have the benefit of helping this small starting five be a bit better than expected on the defensive end. Mason Plumlee has started the two games so far - with Ighodaro playing far more minutes - in the absence of the injured Jusuf Nurkic.

Yet despite this Beal's movement on that end of the court is making the size issues having himself, Devin Booker and Tyus Jones present for the Suns when they're out there together. That's not why Beal is on this roster - but in doing the little things to disrupt passing lanes and stay in front of his man - it's allowing the defensive shape to remain structurally sound.

Offensively, those aforementioned lesser numbers are coming much more in the flow of both the games and also Beal's role on this roster. Last season when he was out there - which was only on 53 occasions - it looked like he didn't know when to take over, when to defer to Booker and Kevin Durant and when to act as the team's lead ball-handler.

That looks to have been cleared up, with Beal knowing he's the third option at best offensively when with the starting unit and playing accordingly. There's been a lot less getting in the way, and more popping up at the right time with key scores and assists. We'll say this one more time though, we know it is the preseason.

But it's not about the results here and more the process that we've seen from Beal. Everything is clicking for him in ways it didn't last season, although he didn't even get a preseason with this squad because of a back issue that forced him to miss the start of the regular season as well. From that point on he was always playing catch up, but that does not look like the case now.

We still haven't seen Beal lead the second unit for long stretches - that time is coming - while the re-introduction of Nurkic may set the progress back some when that happens. But in the early days of October, the fact Bradley Beal looks a lot more like the multiple time All-Star we saw in Washington has to go down has to go down as a massive win. The road ahead looks promising.