The Phoenix Suns went all in on perimeter scoring this offseason, swinging a trade to turn Chris Paul into Bradley Beal. After acquiring Kevin Durant at the deadline last year they now boast an impressive array of offensive talent and a somewhat untested array of role players around them.
The Suns rotation is far from settled but the big question marks are all about who will surround Beal, Durant and Booker in different situations. Most of these questions will likely be answered by a regular season of trial and error but we can already fantasize about some of the experiments we'd like to see them run.
Closing lineup ideas for Phoenix Suns: 3. Eric Gordon — Bradley Beal — Devin Booker — Kevin Durant — Deandre Ayton
The Suns don't have a traditional, starting-caliber point guard on the roster but that's not much of a problem with three elite offensive initiators like Devin Booker, Bradley Beal and Kevin Durant. Those three will be on the court together a ton, most often with Deandre Ayton at center as a defensive anchor and screener.
The fifth player will depend a lot on the situation but Eric Gordon will see plenty of minutes with his experience, shooting ability and ancillary creation and there's a decent chance this is both the Suns' most frequent starting lineup and their most-used lineup over the course of the season.
This group packs the Suns' five-best offensive players into a single lineup and will be a nightmare to defend given their versatility, shooting and ability to work from multiple points of attack. This won't be the Suns' best defensive lineup but there is more than enough balance and for any situation where they want to try and force opponents to adjust to them, or simply overwhelm opponents with their talent, this is probably the group.
Closing lineup ideas for Phoenix Suns: 2. Bradley Beal — Devin Booker — Kevin Durant — Bol Bol — Deandre Ayton
This may not be the Suns best defensive lineup but it has the potential to be the most disruptive and could certainly smother opponents in certain scenarios. Beal and Booker both have good size in the backcourt and the wingspan and mobility of a Durant-Bol-Ayton frontcourt is simply monstrous.
It's not clear yet how Bol fits into the Suns rotation plans but what he showed with the Magic last season implies that he can do a lot more than just backup Ayton. He displayed tantalizing shooting touch, he can handle the ball in the open court and his ability to turn defensive plays into eye-popping fastbreaks would fit well with the rest of this unit.
Bol is by far the biggest wildcard on the Suns' roster and this arrangement — swapping him in for Gordon and shifting Beal, Booker and Durant all down a position creates a lineup with maximum potential chaos, in a good way.
Closing lineup ideas for Phoenix Suns: 1. Damion Lee — Eric Gordon — Bradley Beal — Devin Booker — Kevin Durant
Ayton and Bol are both versatile and mobile enough that the Suns can still play an uptempo, well-spaced game with either or both on the floor. With those two on the roster, along with Drew Eubanks and Chimezie Metu, it's unlikely that play very often without a center. But when they do want to go small, the Suns can do it with as much shooting as anyone.
This orientation puts a lot of defensive pressure on Durant but he did play some center in small ball lineups with the Warriors and really grew as a weakside rim protector in those seasons. We're a few years removed from that and he won't have Draymond Green next to him, but in spurts, he has the physical tools and experience to make this work.
On offense is where this lineup really sings. In Booker, Beal and Durant the Suns have three of the most potent perimeter scorers in the league and they can surround them with Lee — who made 47.0 percent of his catch-and-shoot 3s last season — and Gordon — a career 37.1 percent 3-point shooter and capable off-the-dribble scorer against a bent defense. The Suns could juice their shooting even further by swapping in Yuta Watanabe, a 6-foot-9 wing who made 44.4 percent of his 3s last season.
Again, the defensive strain on this group means it's a situational option at best. But the offensive potential is otherworldly and there are certainly occasions where the Suns could use it to their benefit this season.