Why Bradley Beal is key to a Phoenix Suns playoff run for Durant & Booker | Hoops Tonight

Why Bradley Beal is key to a Phoenix Suns playoff run for Durant & Booker | Hoops Tonight

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So you guys don’t miss any of our content over the course of this season all right let’s talk some basketball again important context here no Damen Lillard last night no Brook Lopez last night Chris Middleton sprained his ankle and apparently left the arena and crunch

Crutches in a walking boot so kind of a disaster night for the bucks that I thought they competed really well on the defensive end yet another again like in terms of defensive effort and commitment to the details I think they have gone up a significant level since Doc Rivers

Came back which is hard to really see the forest for the trees when you’re one and four in that span but I did think it was another good positive step for them on the defensive end of the floor Giannis guarded Kevin Durant pretty damn well just one of the few guys and kind

Of kind of can stay with him step for step and contest shots Malik Beasley was trying really hard against Devin Booker even though he’s given up quite a bit of size there and so they were able to keep things interesting throughout most of the game but the Suns offense broke

Through in a big way in that fourth quarter Bradley Beal had nine points in the first four minutes of the fourth quarter I talked a lot about the idea of you know uh of high level close out attacking as a as a as an important function of highlevel offense especially

When you get to the later stages of the playoffs and it in large part just because defenses get so much better they’re going to chase you off the three-point line they’re going to take away the rim this is why I hyperfocus on spot up efficiency rather than actual catch and shoot efficiency because

Catching and shooting is only one phase of making a defense pay and when you’re not good at putting the ball on the floor guys can actually recklessly close out at you without necessarily compromising the defense too much and one of the things that the the suns were

Doing a lot of were like two-man game with Bradley Beal and Kevin Durant to try to get uh Malik Beasley switched on to Kevin so that they can go down to the block on him and they did that early fourth quarter quick double team from Giannis quick swing pass out to Bradley

Be knocks down a three then later on Kevin Durant Kevin Durant pretty consistently was drawing that Blitz out above the key draws a blitz drops it to use of nurkic nurkic makes a kick out pass to Bradley Beal on the left wing pump fake rip through one dribble pull

Up Elevate knock it down that’s a highle close that attack that’s a situation if you watch that play The Catch and shoot three is not there the driving layup is not there and so there’s an opening there in the middle of the floor and having a guy who can capitalize on that

Is super valuable and then the matchup attacking was a big one they went to the post against campaign with Bradley Beal drove right through him to the basket for a left-handed layup then he drove right past Pat conon actually smoked the layup but he’s just such a good athlete

That he’s able to get back up off the floor on that second jump get the ball put it back in that was the big spark for that early fourth quarter run for the Suns and then pretty quickly they went up big and the game was basically over at that point Bradley Beal brings

That power and force to the offensive end of the floor that the rest of the guys don’t have this is kind of It kind of reminds me of like what Kawhi Leonard brings to the LA Clippers where you know there’s a certain finesse element to the

Way that they play it’s a lot of like high level skill these are guys that have made their their living in the NBA by working harder on the details in the gym by themselves than anybody else and polishing up these extremely well-rounded skill sets to generate highquality shots well a lot of times

That I shouldn’t say a lot of times it is possible that that can fail you in a lot of ways because there’s variance in distance shot making right and so having a real physical imposition on the game is a great counter to that okay the shots aren’t falling but hey I’m faster

Than you hey I’m bigger than you or whatever it is right and like that to me is the role that Bradley Beal plays on the Suns and the role that Kawhi Leonard in particular plays on the Clippers in the sense where it’s like he’s actually just a top tier athlete for his position

And he can get he kind of pulls out to like 30 feet and he kind of gets going downhill with like a series of In-N-Out dribbles and that Defender is just Panic backpedaling on his heels there’s a step back jumper that he hit on Jay Crowder I

Think in the middle of the fourth quarter if I remember correctly and it was just one of those deals where when he backed up and he started coming downhill at Jay Crowder Jay Crowder just has no chance to actually take away the jump shot and the drive and so he’s just

Really aggressively backpedaling and Bradley Beal can rise up into this like easy like 12 foot pull-up jumper that’s barely even contested because of the physical Advantage he brings to the table and so you know if there’s if there’s a big upside by by going with a third star versus a higher level role

Player you may lose out on some of the details of the game especially on the defensive end and in rebounding situations and just some of the role player stuff but there is something to be said about that additional high level offensive production right and like specifically with Bradley Beal as the

Top tier athlete in the group because Kevin Durant is is extremely tall and long for his specific scoring archetype and Devin Booker is one of the most skilled players in the league but Devon Booker’s not a top tier athlete at the two guard position he’s not going to physically overwhelm players the way

That a guy like Bradley beel can in his position group Devon uh Deon Booker continued his hot streak he had 32 points did most of his work in ball screens he had 19 of his 32 shooting out of ball screens and dribble handoffs just too big for Malik Beasley he’s

Really patient like once he gets over the top of the screen Malik Beasley just comes because is working really hard trying to get back into the play and Devon Booker will basically just patiently whether it’s a pump fake or just putting him in jail and waiting

He’s waiting for Malik Beasley to end up back on the ground and then he can just rise back up and he’s so good at like patiently waiting for those little 10 12 Footers that he can get after the defender comes back down to the ground Deon Booker’s 33 points per game in his

Last 11 games on 55% shooting in 42% from three so kind of maintaining that top tier Superstar level of production that we kind of expected from Kev Booker for the whole season wasn’t there really at the start but now he’s starting to get into his Groove and then Kevin

Durant picked his spots he he was particularly aggressive against Jay Crowder you could just tell he liked that matchup in particular and he was going to work whenever he got him on an island I also thought Kevin Durant defended Yannis pretty well and you know again like one of the big turnarounds of

This Sun’s streak because like they’re 16- six since they lost to Dallas on Christmas Day and they have uh the 10th best defense in the league over that span so a top 10 defensive effort over basically a chunk of the season that’s more than a fourth of the season and

They have the third best record in the league over that span including a lot of quality wins and a big part of that is one of the things I’ve talked about throughout Kevin Durant’s career which is when he engages himself defensively he’s legitimately one of the most talented defensive players in the league

And he just has a a really unique uh ability to impact games there and then the last guy I wanted to shout out on the Suns front was keev uh was uh BB played a really under control game using his length and athleticism just to

Be a pain in the ass short shifts and still had six rebounds had a crazy block this transition play where AJ Green got a corner three for the bucks U kind of in like one of those runout situations he was way behind the play and just gave

Crazy effort and somehow got back in and blocked the three but the most impressive part to me about it was you know bbo has a tendency just especially from the earlier phase of his career to kind of try to do too much offensively and that wasn’t there for bbow in this

Game just just was being another spoke in the wheel so to speak you were there were so it was interesting watching the game cuz the Suns fans were just begging him to shoot half the time he catch the damn basketball because obviously you know BB is a little bit of a fan

Favorite right but no he was super patient he if he caught the ball and he didn’t have like a fantastic look he was turning and looking to run that next dribble handoff and just like I said a really undercontrol game didn’t force anything the suns were plus eight in his

Minutes as a matter of fact in B Bow’s shifts the Suns haven’t lost his minutes since December 27th so he’s been kind of a useful contributor for them he’s providing if you extrapolate I use per 36 not as a method of like what this player could be if he played more

Minutes but just as a method of trying to capture activity for a bench player and bow is averaging 16 points and 12 rebounds with 3.3 stocks per 36 minutes so far this season just really active in his opportunities so another good step in the right direction for the Suns

Again 16- six since since their loss to Dallas on Christmas day so trending in the right direction there again the most encouraging part there is the defensive end of the floor they need to be closer to what the Nets were with Harden Kyrie and KD where it’s a two-way impact it’s

Not just competing on the offensive end of the floor with all of their perimeter skill but also using their perimeter skill on the defensive end of the floor to stay in basketball Games

Jason Timpf dives into the Phoenix Suns as they have won seven of their last 10. As Bradley Beal has gotten healthy and more acclimated to playing alongside Kevin Durant and Devin Booker, the Suns are starting to look like the dominant team we thought they would be before the season. Jason outlines how Phoenix will only be able to go as far as Bradley Beal will take them. He is a better No. 3 option than any team has in the NBA, and if he is playing at a high level, the Suns can win an NBA championship.

Watch the full episode here: https://youtu.be/P_kUWs5MtLI

Timeline:
00:00 – Bucks-Suns Reaction
01:09 – What makes Bradley Beal so valuable
05:15 – Devin Booker stays hot
06:04 – Durant turns up on defense
06:52 – Bol Bol steps up
08:24 – #1 reason Suns are improving

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