3 overreactions after 3 Phoenix Suns games

The Phoenix Suns have played the first three games of a 2024-25 season with a ton riding on it, and they have a 2-1 record to show for it. Split a few games over in Los Angeles against both teams there before a nice win over the Dallas Mavericks in their first outing at the Footprint Center.

Yes, we have hardly played any games and of course there will be so many twists and turns between now and the playoffs. Still, it already looks like we have a decent feel for certain areas of how this franchise tries to approach and win games, and they’re worth talking about.

Disagree with these all you want – but one thing you have to admit – is that these are coming from a place of truth that has consumed 13 quarters of the Suns’ basketball so far (that win over the LA Clippers ended up going to overtime ). Fortunately for this team, many of these observations are also entirely positive.

Maybe this shouldn’t come as a surprise — and there are certainly those who will still disagree — but it’s clear as day that this Suns team is better than the product they had last season. The Clippers win was professional in how it was handled, while the home win over the Mavericks was exactly what was needed after the loss to the Los Angeles Lakers.

Kevin Durant looks as unstoppable as ever on the offensive end, and the fact that Devin Booker hasn’t really caught fire yet and Beal missed the win over the Mavericks shows that there are still good places for this group to go together. It was a tough three games to start the campaign and the Suns should have won them all.

The only area that is really letting them down right now is the dumb plays and decisions that have unfortunately carried over from last season and seem to occur when the Suns are in complete control of the game. They were up by as many as 22 in the second quarter against the Lakers, but somehow conspired to lose that game.

If they can clean up the isolation plays that creep in when they have a big lead, then the sky really is the limit here. Point guard Tyus Jones has been one of the main reasons for this, although he alone cannot take all the credit. The Suns heard what everyone had to say after last season, and so far they’re playing like they’re taking this whole regular season a lot more seriously.

It says a lot that the Suns — coming off the silly loss to the Lakers — turned to rookie Ryan Dunn in the absence of Beal and Grayson Allen due to injury. They could have inserted Royce O’Neale into the starting lineup — a player head coach Mike Budenholzer admittedly likes with the second unit — after paying him to stick around this summer.

But with veteran options to choose from, Coach Bud went with Dunn and it mostly paid off. Fans need to stop calling for Beal to be benched in favor of the rookie, it’s simply not going to happen. Not just because he’s making $50 million this season alone, but because this is already the best version of Beal we’ve seen in The Valley.

There is a happy medium, though, and that largely includes Dunn being part of the second unit. The other rookie in this rotation — big man Oso Ighodaro — actually has an easier path to playing time because he’s such a different center option than Jusuf Nurkic and Mason Plumlee. Young and bouncy, he offers this team something different.

But it can no longer be denied that Dunn is actually going to help this season, and he’ll do that by making an impact on both ends of the court. The sample size is small, but 46.2 percent from deep on 4.3 attempts per game is outrageous — and if it continues — then Dunn will really force the coaching staff to make some tough choices.

If there was ever any doubt that the coach and players were a good fit, Budenholzer put those thoughts to rest as soon as they played in the preseason. Immediately, he played to the team’s strengths and didn’t try to force them to be a defensive-minded group like former head coach Frank Vogel attempted last season.

He lets the stars be themselves on the offensive end and puts the ball in Jones’ hands to make plays happen. More than that, he’s trying to get Nurkic to move further away from the paint to make an impact. This will be a slow process, but you can see the seeds being sown early in the campaign.

However, it is the 3-point shooting that is most telling, with the Suns currently ranked 12th at 38 per. match. Not only are there about five more tries a night than last season, you can be sure that will continue to trend north as the Suns face weaker opponents in their schedule.

They’ve also already had to play without Beal and Allen — two of the top seven 3-point shooters in percentage last season — and try to channel much of their set play through Jones and Monte Morris when he’s on the court. The offensive structure is simpler – but more importantly – looks much more effective early.