What Was Suns' Biggest Loss in Offseason?
The Phoenix Suns stacked plenty of wins this offseason after again exiting early in the playoffs - the biggest move coming with the acquisition of Bradley Beal.
The Suns were able to offload Chris Paul and his contract while upgrading to a younger guard with far better scoring, something Phoenix truly needed outside of Kevin Durant and Devin Booker.
The trio of Beal-Booker-Durant figures to be powerful on the court, though there are some concerns that the lack of a true point guard will be evident come this season.
Bleacher Report says the team's biggest loss this offseason was not obtaining an actual floor general.
"Losing Paul and then trading backup point guard Cam Payne in a salary dump means the Suns are running short on floor generals. While any of their three stars can handle the ball and create for others, Phoenix could still use a veteran pass-first guard in its rotation," said B/R.
"The Bol Bol signing has brought the Suns' roster up to a full 15 players, so bringing in a free agent doesn't look likely. Eventually trading Deandre Ayton for some role players could fetch a true point guard, but that looks unlikely at this time as well.
"This offense has the chance to look a little clunky at times, even if the overall star power on the floor should eventually figure things out."
The concerns are fair - though the Suns simply have enough talent to overcome it. Though Beal is expected to align as Phoenix's point guard and run the offense, Booker has plenty of experience bringing the ball up and running the offense.
ESPN NBA analyst/insider Zach Lowe broke down this very issue in a recent article:
"Point guards typically have the ball the most, and hold it the longest. That is one potential structural flaw skeptics see in this tossed-together would-be superteam: all three of its central stars are good at running an offense, and there are diminishing returns in shifting too much control of it to the Suns' third-best player -- Beal -- at the expense of Booker and Durant," wrote Lowe.
"It's easy to overthink these things. If Durant, Booker and Beal are reasonably healthy, the Suns' offense will almost certainly be awesome. When all three stars can shoot, dribble, and pass at high levels, their combined talent tends to overwhelm any issue of overlapping skill sets. Durant is perhaps the most malleable superstar in league history, capable of dominating games without dominating the ball.
"For all the attention on the decline of Beal's 3-point shooting, he has been consistently at 38% or better -- and often over 40% -- on catch-and-shoot looks. He should get many more in Phoenix than he did on moribund Washington Wizards teams -- more than at any time since John Wall was spraying passes around D.C."
Can the Suns operate without an "actual" point guard? Absolutely.
Will it take time to really see the team gel? Also, absolutely. You have to trust the talent and coaching to overcome those sorts of issues.
