Phoenix Suns Best Offense In the NBA? Plus Bradley Beal Sacrifice & NBA Buyout Targets

Phoenix Suns Best Offense In the NBA? Plus Bradley Beal Sacrifice & NBA Buyout Targets

On today’s episode of Locked on suns after a 132 point game on the road against the Dallas Mavericks with the offense clicking to near Perfection it’s time to ask a question that a lot of data backs up do the Phoenix Suns have the best offense

In the NBA let’s go you are locked on suns your daily Phoenix Suns podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every Day we are back this is locked on Phoenix Suns we are part of the locked on podcast Network I’m your host Brendan clean a credential media member covering the Suns for the past seven seasons a writer ATS suns.com and and the host of the just basketball show wherever you

Get your podcasts a big thank you for making locked on suns your first listen to kick off your Friday another Sun’s Game Day Out in Indianapolis as the road trip continues appreciate you getting your day started here on the show if you’re finding us for the first time or

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It Zack crem over at the ringer on Thursday morning had a really good breakdown as part of his weekly NBA column over there of what why the Phoenix Suns have a case to being the best offense in the NBA let me give you some of the numbers that he has in here to

Illustrate the case I’ll tell you whether I think they’re there yet and we’ll go to Bradley Beal from there I think but the basic is now that Beal Booker and Durant have a real sample under their belts they’re looking every bit like the Unstoppable unit that they were Acquired and assembled to

Be the suns are scoring 135.7 points per 100 possessions with those three guys on the court together across 535 possessions so this is no longer a really tiny sample where again it’s hard to tell this is real that is in the 100th percentile among all lineups that have played enough in

The NBA this season season meaning there’s basically been no unit better than those three guys being on the court and it doesn’t even really matter who the other two guys have been they have a plus 25.1 net rating which I would imagine is yeah if you count that down the defensive rating

Is still 112. six then but that’s hardly it it it’s the idea of this whole thing right it it hardly matters if the defense is still barely above average when everything else is working so well Zack cram went on to discuss the shooting the suns are in at least the

87th percentile in all of the different spots of of the court at The Rim all three levels of the mid-range or two levels of the mid-range short and long mid-range shots Corner threes and that is actually all of those are 96th percentile or higher the above the

B break 3es they’re only shooting 40% from man those most difficult shots in basketball they’re only shooting 40% on what a what an underachieving performance right of course not no that’s still Elite the the case here right is that you just simply can’t make the right decision

Right that’s the case of this Sun’s offense being the best one in the league in addition to those numbers right and there’s even more numbers right they’ve been a pretty good offensive rebounding team most of the Season depending on who’s on the court they get to the free

Throw line like crazy it’s basically them or the basically walking trip to the free throw line of Joel embiid in the Philadelphia 76ers it fluctuates between those two that is great company to be in that is a big part of why they are so Unstoppable but again the point of building a roster

Like this with not only this big three but I would add Grayson Allen and I would add Yousef nurkic and I would add Eric Gordon when he’s going is that there’s no good choice every thing that a defense might do as long as the players are executing making good decisions spaced properly

Playing with Pace all the things we’ve talked about all season no matter what a defense would can do they’re going to have a leak there is going to be an opening somewhere to attack and with this Talent the Suns will attack it and they will find it and they will get

A good shot out of it because rather than like forget even past Suns teams I was going to throw like a Landry sham or a j Crowder or DeAndre Aon out there is sort of a release valve or a puncture of those holes what I would say is compare it

Even to other NBA teams right compare it to other Western Conference teams compare it to the Dallas Mavericks who they just played the Suns at times in the second to start the second half Yousef nkit is guarding Grant Williams then when Grant Williams gets hurt or gets hurt gets ejected I should

Say Yousef nkic moves on to guarding Derrik Jones that’s a weak point right that’s exploitable when the Suns devote so much attention to stopping Luca those guys have opportunities to make plays they’re not good enough to make plays right Bradley Beal as a third option Grayson Allen as a fourth option Yousef nurkic

Rolling to the basket or operating as a passer in space those guys are good enough to to to puncture these things and to take advantage of what’s being opened up by the defense here’s what I will say and why I don’t quite think even based on some awesome numbers

That it is the best offense in the NBA yet and I don’t mean this as a copout it’s easy to go well I just need to see it okay duh of course nobody would literally say based on this handful of games mon or so of games that

They’ve proven themselves to be the best offense in the NBA of course not I’m not just saying it as that kind of a copout the reason that I would not yet them yet put them in that class and that class to me is the Denver Nuggets that class to me could

Potentially be the Milwaukee Bucks and that class to me is the LA Clippers okay those are three of the seven best offenses in the NBA statistically the Suns actually still are only eighth okay the Clippers the nuggets and the bucks now all of those teams don’t yet

Have what I’m going to say the Suns need either but they’re at least a lot closer which is cohesion chemistry because the thing I don’t yet trust and in Zack cram’s article he even points out the turnovers with those three guys on the big three on the court for Phoenix have actually

Trended downward it’s not nearly the emergency you might remember it as during the early season stuff but the part that I don’t yet trust is the ability to rip through different options and different methods of attacking defenses one after the next over and over in an instant that is hard to do

Right even if the Suns did a great job of attacking Derrick Lively attacking Luca playing fast they executed that to a really high degree that’s how you get 132 points but can they do that against Elite defensive teams Elite defensive game plans every night across a whole playoff series Without missing a

Beat I know the Nuggets can do that I guess we’re still seeing an evolution with Milwaukee with Giannis and Dame and now Doc Rivers playing uh developing the game plans and the Clippers it’s pretty easy for them because they’ll just isolate you and kill you that way but they’ve shown and

They have more of a time together than even the Suns have had despite the Harden trade coming mid season they still have more reps those teams have that the Bucks have shown that they can get there and Dame needs to play up to that level the Suns can get there too but

That’s the last ingredient a big part of that ingredient will be Bradley Beal a big part of that ingredient has already been Bradley Beal will break down his sacrifice full season next first Today’s Show brought to you by eBay Motors our partners at eBay motors have teamed up

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Apply let’s keep it rolling talking Bradley Beal all right again an easy thing to say an obvious thing to say here that Bradley Beal was the missing piece because he quite literally was he was a big piece and he was missing now he’s back and they’re playing well it sort of sounds

Obvious but I think what cannot get overlooked when you say that despite how obviously true it is is that Beal’s impact the the value that he’s been able to have was not a given okay Beal is averaging 18.1 points let’s talk talk about it this way per 36 minutes I

Think that’s a this is a situation where that’s more helpful because it evens out everything and you’re not having to say well but he played more in Washington or okay per 36 minutes two seasons ago 23.2 points the seasons both before that over 30 last season with kozma and porzingis

Still 25 points per 36 minutes obviously the previous season there was Russell Westbrook Beal has had different teammates he has had different roles you even go back to some of the John Wall years Beal has not scored this few points per 36 minutes since his third NBA season when he was 21 years

Old he has not had the consistent night in Night Out assist numbers that you might have wanted but what he it’s pretty much even with the past few years not quite as the past two years he was kind of their point guard a lot of the time they had like again kozma porzingis

Um Delon Wright guys like that who are not really point guards but his turnovers are down that’s really big and he’s shooting 39% from deep as well as 56% from two his efficiency is off the charts so he’s doing what every third banana on a super team in recent NBA history and NBA

History period has ever done what we knew he would have to do and I feel like I kind of talked myself out of the idea of sacrifice or reduced role or whatever because I you know see people like Steven pjon and others who were optimistic about Beal being able to play his game

Without the numbers taking a hit or anything else and I think kind of both arguments were true obviously the numbers are down a little bit as I just said but you don’t feel like he’s uninvolved and I think that’s why last year for this guy was so

Big that’s why the impact and the value is where it’s at because he’s combining everything staying plenty involved I mean we can use something like usage or assist rate his usage rate again Lower low as it’s been since that third season but his assist rate is okay

Again not not super high Maybe I’m Wrong maybe we should say that he’s a little bit less involved but he’s very clearly still the third guy on this team I guess is my point right he’s not getting lost in the shuffle he is very clearly a

Go-to option to score to play make but most importantly where I was going with the Wizards last season and what he developed playing with those two guys is his value as a screener his value as a team offensive player and what I mean by that is not just that he’s unselfish or

Passes what I mean by that is that he’s used as a versatile chess piece within an offense and it’s a weird way weird day to talk up this aspect of what Peele is because the coach that put him in those situations West sunel Jr just got fired today I don’t personally understand what

The hell he was supposed to do with Washington’s roster sort of feels like them getting a head start on the coaching Market conversation for a different day but he did good things with Beal those three players kusma porzingis and Beal were all interchangeable within that offense all three could handle the

Ball all three could screen all three could shoot all three could handle I think I said that what I meant is pass and all three had various versions of career seasons for Beal that was close to a career best in terms of efficiency in terms of playmaking for kuzma scoring for

Porzingis postgame and playmaking and reading the floor and everything else and Beal’s taking those lessons and doing it with just better teammates but the reason it works I know I keep saying but the reason but the reason but we’re going layers deep here the Suns offense is great because

Of Beal Beal is great because he is playing as this chess piece and him playing as this chess piece works because it makes it forces the defense to do exactly what the Suns want want it to do right you cannot help you cannot help off with Bradley Beal right he’s too

Deadly of a shooter too deadly attacking Closeouts makes the right decision and everything else when he’s used as a screener the defense’s instinct is to go to the ball the defense’s instinct when Devin Booker is coming off of a double screen from let’s say Beal and nkit nurkic rolls Beal pops very normal

Double drag set we’ve seen Booker run a lot even though it’s Bradley Beal even though nerkach is a big guy the instinct is to try to worry about what on Earth Devon Booker is about to do is he about to pull up for three in your face is he

About to take a couple steps inside and pull up for Mid in your face is he looking for a pass you want to flood the the you know passing Lanes on that is he driving you want to stop him meanwhile Beal’s just chilling at the

Top of the Ark wide open right there’s a whole bunch of versions of this as a roller when we’ve seen him do that when Durant is handling the ball as purely a spacer all of these things the last thing I want to say though from a to

Kind of hammer home the point of sacrifice why I do think that that’s a fair thing to say and not an insult or some sort of problem here his contributions to what the Suns did on their huge run to take back the lead and then blow out Dallas on their home

Court on Wednesday night should not go overlooked I kind of feel like the momentum started to shift when he had the dunk now he had a dunk and then he had a a block and then Luca got going a bit and the Suns actually end up having

To call a timeout but that’s when it started to feel like it shifted to me where they started to claw back into it and after that he stayed on the court almost the whole rest of the quarter the second quarter he had an a putback an offensive Rebound with a little floater

He had an assist off of the broken play where KD was bobbling the ball and Grayson Allen ends up getting the the left right wing three Beal gets it in the corner kicks it to Allen when the defense comes to try to contest his three he had uh defense against the

Dante Exum closeout that resulted in a throw to the corner where I believe Luca was and I think that was the turnover to Grayson Allen I’m not fully remembering but there was that closeout defense was definitely there and that led to a Kill against the Dallas possession as the

Defense all these little things he’s a very solid help Defender he is a smart passer he can get them going in transition he’s not afraid to attack the basket those are not all things you maybe would have highlighted about Beal even though he’s a talented guy he probably has always been capable of

Those things he just wasn’t doing them it takes commitment it takes determination it takes sacrifice and he’s doing it let’s close out the show with a little bit of transaction talk I know it is that time of year wge on a threads Q&A I guess he’s doing those now said

That he does not expect the Suns to have much luck in the trade market now you can disagree with that I’m not positive that I agree with that but he said much more likely to have buyout guys Mark Spears echoed the same thing so we will dive into who those could be

Next first Today’s Show brought to you by grammarly grammarly is I mean for a writing lover like myself one of my favorite partners we’ve ever had and when it comes to writing grammarly is there to support you from start to finish for over 10 years before anyone

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Players all right one thing to keep in mind and you can sign up for the lock on suns Insider text alerts at the link in the show description below or at join sub text.com lockon Suns incredibly valuable this time of year where I will be sending out all of the rumors you could

Imagine about the Suns they’re connected to that guy they want that guy this guy might be available I will send them directly to your phone you can respond to me you can ask me questions you can give me your thoughts I have Game Day stuff every single game day and much

More so you’ll want to check that out if you have not already again Link in the show description or join sub.com lockon Suns the reason I bring it up is that I sent something out about Kyle Lowry and a subscriber there was nice enough to

Point out that I was wrong because I was just going too fast Kyle Lowry gets traded to Charlotte in that roier deal and I’m like awesome Sons can get Kyle Larry they cannot and I knew that but but I forgot and the reason is Kyle Lowry makes too much money okay

So for a good a perfect example of this rule $ 29.7 million is Lowry’s salary this season that number of course is more than 12.4 million 12.4 million is this year’s midlevel exception you don’t really have to know why that’s the number but that’s the number and the

Suns cannot sign anybody on a buyout who makes more than that Sal when they’re bought out so Lowry at 30 million way too high the sons are not eligible to sign him because they are above the second apron so this is one of the another one of the wrinkles of the

Limitations the Suns have in terms of building out their roster many of you probably knew that I just wanted to preface us there so for another example related to the Charlotte Hornets Gordon Hayward he makes $31.5 million I personally don’t think anybody’s going to trade for him because he is is always

Injured so I think he could get bought out the Suns will not be able to sign him okay so keep that in mind when you’re thinking of names when you’re talking about names when you’re texting me back on the lock on suns insiders with what about this guy or that guy the

Suns cannot always get those players so here’s a good one kellyo linic makes right below the number at 12.2 I think he’d be solid but I think he’s too close to Yousef nurkic okay so that’s a no I also think Kelly oen will be traded but Bill Simmons brought him up as a

Buyout guy so you know crazier things have happened I’ve mentioned the name Delan Wright before as a trade Target but on an expiring contract if the war if the Wizards don’t get a lot of interest in him maybe they do him a favor he’s in his 30s now and they

Probably will not resign him he’s been hurt in and out of the lineup this season maybe they would do him that favor and buy him out a couple of names we’re just going to go from the end of the lineup end of the alphabet up among

All the tanking teams that could be bio candidates in Toronto two names thus young who is starting has been starting games for this team I think he is now hurt again and auto porter do either one of those have enough go one of those guys have enough

In the tank to contribute to a playoff team in 2024 I probably lean toward no but that’s the type of player that tends to become available guys you’re not sure on right the suns were so eager to get Terrence Russ remember that didn’t go anywhere right so that’s

Where we are let’s move on to the Memphis Grizzlies I don’t know how many guys they have that they would buy out because almost everybody on their team is on a multi-year contract so I’m probably leaning toward the only options I could maybe see Derrick Rose

But they seem to like his connection to John Morant and he’s been hurt all season not even a differen maker in 2024 to me so on to the next okay Houston Rockets I’ve another guy that I’ve mentioned as a trade Target Jon Tate now the I don’t know how team options

Work with this stuff he technically has a team option for next season I don’t know if you’re allowed to decline that now and then he can be cut all at once but if he can keep him on your radar the maybe more interesting one an old favorite Aaron

Holiday having an amazing season in Houston really really solid season as a backup point guard for them very similar to Fred Van vet which I think has been helpful so maybe out of that context without alprin shenon to help him out and without maybe so much responsibility cuz frankly Oka

Entrusting the whole second unit to Aaron holiday was kind of an upset but he’s handled it maybe he doesn’t get that Trust From Another coach I’m not sure I also am not sure that they would move on from him because even though they’re kind of a

Younger team and he’s a vet he’s only 27 and he had his best years here but if for some reason he wants out and they don’t give him a signal that they’re going to resign him he’s also expiring maybe they would move on he would be

Incredible for this Suns team but I kind of don’t think it’s G to happen Detroit Joe Harris might get bought out he makes too much money for the Suns to keep him uh James wisman don’t think he makes sense here Alec Burks is on an expiring contract makes little enough

Money that he could be a candidate but I don’t think I think the Pistons could get something for him I think he will get traded if he’s moved at all if he you know if they get rid of him at all but two interesting names on the I would

Say three interesting names at the bottom of the Pistons roster Monte Morris who has not played all season it might just not happen and he is an a free agent I wouldn’t be surprised if he went back to the Nuggets to be completely honest with you who knows with him but obviously if

He were to be bought out and he were to be healthy we know the Suns they don’t need a point guard but somebody like Morris who defends well at the point of attack and can just set the table it’s kind of a why not with him Danilo

Galinari and Mike muscala just got to washing just got to Detroit from Washington in the baggley trade that I mentioned in the eBay read I don’t think either one of them would be in a playoff rotation let me just say that but if you just want a little bit more depth so that

Maybe in a playoff series you don’t have to play chamei metu if Eubanks and nurkic aren’t don’t have it going for instance okay I could see it and then Danel galinari is sort of just a big shooter he he still puts up buckets I just think defensively in the playoffs

It’s probably a no-go but again depth if you want to have him in there more than like a udawat naab i why who am I to say no Chicago Bulls I don’t think really have a ton of buyout candidates Tory Craig has a player option for next season Andre

Drummond I think that they could probably get something for on the trade market although maybe he could get bought out and that’s sort of it for them so unfortunately they’re going to be either either a trade team or a no trade team and I kind of have a feeling

They’re going to frustrate all of us and not make trades the Nets don’t really have anyone you would say maybe Dennis Smith Jr because he hasn’t been available but I also think he played really well for Charlotte last year they were pretty excited about that signing and talking

Him up preseason and everything so I kind of think he might just come back on another minimum and there’s no need to cut him and let him go to another team lastly the Atlanta Hawks Patty Mills is is a very likely buyout candidate I just don’t think he has anything left in the

Tank but if you know he did play with KD Once Upon a Time if there is some sort of relationship stuff similar to the PJ Tucker thing we talked about them you know him becoming available he might not play but as a leader as a vet might make

Sense to just have on the roster for a playoff run I could see it with Patty Mills that’s pretty much it for them so those are the options here it’s not going to be sexy it’s not going to be a huge home run that is what the buyout

Market is but I think between those names if even one of them were to come to the Suns I think everybody I listed off who I kind of hyped up in any way shape or form would provide some value even if it’s just in the regular season

So those are all of the guys that I could possibly see hopefully that helps enjoy your Friday enjoy your weekend don’t forget to sign up for lockon Suns Insider text alerts like I mentioned before join sub text.com lockon Suns or click the link in the show description

Below Suns Pacers on Friday I will have a preview on the audio feed Sunday night recap of that game talk to you then

The Phoenix Suns are rolling, but do Devin Booker, Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal make up the best offense in the NBA?

Brendon Kleen of @justbasketballfans breaks down the one last thing they need to earn that title. Then, a look at how Bradley Beal is adjusting to a super team and who the Suns could target on the NBA buyout market.

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