The quiet free agent who could finally unlock KD, Booker and the Suns’ Big 3

FOR MOST OF his 13 years in the NBA, Bradley Beal has had a good sense of who he is as a player. An elite shooter and goalscorer. A willing passer and versatile defender. The three All-Star games confirmed this self-perception. So did the annual interest in him from candidates while he starred for the Washington Wizards.

But this past year was a strange year for Beal. Not just because he finally asked and was traded to the Phoenix Suns last August. But because he had been asked to and tried to play a completely different position for the Suns than he had played for most of his career: point guard.

“They used me more as a facilitator than a scorer, and honestly, kind of f—ed with my head,” Beal told ESPN. “Literally this whole summer, I had just had a whole reflection, like, ‘Who are you?’

“I had to have a proper talk with myself, you know. I took the time to look at myself in the mirror to answer, ‘What do I need to do better? Who am I?’ And then just get back to it.”

Around the same time Beal was reflecting on his first year in Phoenix, the Suns were doing the same. How could a team with three superstars — Beal, Kevin Durant and Devin Booker — amount to so little in the playoffs? Why had they come so far from their collective parts?

Neither Frank Vogel nor the Suns had chosen to play Beal and Booker as their point guard because they believed that was the best role for them. Doing so was a consequence of having to trade Chris Paul to the Wizards to acquire Beal and his $46.7 million salary, and being one of five teams to move above the NBA’s new “second tier,” which largely limits a team’s ability to make trades or fill out its roster with players making more than the veteran minimum.

All season, Beal, Booker and Vogel said they were committed to making the best of the situation. But it was clear early in the season – and after – that the experiment was unsustainable. The numbers told the story. Beal averaged 18.2 points per game. game last season, his lowest since 2015-16, and 72% of his touches led to a pass per second Spectrum. His usage rate (22.4%) ranked as his lowest since 2014-15.

Booker, for his part, brought the ball up the floor on nearly 30% of the Suns’ possessions per quarter. game, per second Spectrum, the highest rate of his career, while collecting his lowest total usage (29.4%) since 2016-17. Only 25.5 of his touches led to a shot, the lowest rate of his career.

The Minnesota Timberwolves, the Suns’ first-round playoff opponent, took full advantage.

Over the Suns’ last five games against the Wolves — their final regular-season game and four-game sweep — Minnesota pressured the player to carry the ball on a combined 157 possessions, the most the Suns faced over any five-game stretch last season.

“I mean, it was just a different role, a different responsibility,” Booker told ESPN. “It was something we were both not used to, but we were willing to learn and do it.”

Vogel was replaced after just one season by Mike Budenholzer. But the Suns knew they needed more than just a coaching change to change their fortunes, team sources said. They needed a player who could return Beal and Booker to the positions where they had become superstars.

“I think after the year we realized it was about optimizing those three guys,” Suns CEO Josh Bartelstein told ESPN. “I mean, Bradley Beal has led the league in scoring. Let’s get him back to that. “That doesn’t mean there won’t be times this year where Brad and Devin are the guards, but when we stepped back to see on things, the most important thing was, if we have these three guys, how do we get them to be the best version of themselves?”

Those questions were quietly but surely answered nearly four weeks after the start of free agency, when the Suns spent $3 million on a player they believe will unlock the as-yet-unseen championship potential of the most tantalizing Big 3 in basketball.

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ABOUT SOMETHING, THAT The problem became even more difficult for Phoenix to resolve this summer when the new collective bargaining agreement went into full effect in July.

Phoenix couldn’t even afford to keep its backup point guard, Cameron Payne, who traded his $6.5 salary and a second pick last offseason to San Antonio to save money that was spent on backup center Bol Bol.

New owner Mat Ishbia told ESPN last March that his solution, if one existed, would be to create a culture where veteran players would opt for more pay elsewhere.

“I understand all the rules that come with the second apron. I understand exactly what the CBA was trying to do,” he said. “I read it, I know it inside and out, and we made a calculated decision that we think the team with the best players wins. I’d rather have Brad Beal, Kevin Durant and Devin Booker than just have two of those guys?I’d rather have all of them three hundred times out of a hundred, and I don’t think there’s another GM or owner or CEO that wouldn’t say the exact same thing.

“So now how do you maneuver around that? Well, you’ve got to differentiate yourself… I’ve got to create an environment where (we’re) trying to be the best franchise in sports, where the players want play.”

It was an idealistic feeling. And Ishbia understood that other owners or front offices believed he would soon be humbled by the harsh realities of the NBA, as other flamboyant new owners have been.

But he also believed it would only take one veteran player to prove him right.

That player was ultimately Tyus Jones.

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10TH YEAR THE GUARD from Duke has ranked in the NBA’s top five in assist-to-turnover ratio for eight consecutive seasons. He has led the league in five of them, and last season had the best ratio (7.35) since individual turnovers were first tracked in 1977-78.

In any other year, Jones would have been handsomely paid as the top point guard on the free agent market with a reputation as a mature leader. And indeed, Jones outweighed more lucrative interest from the Wizards, Detroit Pistons, San Antonio Spurs and Brooklyn Nets, league sources said, with offers between $8 million and $12 million annually.

But none of those teams offered the type of role and ceiling that the Suns did.

“The first conversation I had with my agent, I was like, ‘Man, I wish they had more money, because basketball-wise, the fit was ideal,'” Jones told ESPN.

That conversation took place before free agency began. After the first week of free agency — when the Spurs signed Paul to a one-year, $11 million deal and his other suitors began pressing him for answers — Jones’ choice became clear: Take the money in a losing situation and make the best of it of it. Or sign a veteran-minimum deal with a contender and test free agency again next summer.

Bartelstein broached the idea with Jones’ agent, Kevin Bradbury, over drinks at the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas, figuring at best he was just doing due diligence.

“That’s where it went from a 0.1% chance to a 1% chance,” Bartelstein said. “We kind of opened the door … and then it became like recruiting at the university.”

Bartelstein got Ishbia on the phone with Jones and his wife, Carrie, after which they met in person in Phoenix with president of basketball operations James Jones. Afterward, Tre Jones sat down with Budenholzer to discuss the role he would play and the coaches’ vision for how the team would play with Jones as the floor general.

“She was actually in the conversations with Josh and with Bud and with Mat,” Jones said. “Because this was more than just a decision for myself. It’s also about her and the family. Just deciding where we want to be, what would be a good place for them, both living and organization-wise.

“Honestly, just those that include her and understanding of our family is a big part of the decision. We look at everything for our kids and what helps her feel comfortable ultimately helped me to to become familiar with the decision.”

Beal isn’t shy about what a player like Jones does for him on the field. He probably could have skipped all that soul-searching and self-reflection if he knew the Suns would land a point guard like Jones in free agency.

In the Suns’ first four games this season, Jones is averaging 10 points, 6 assists and less than one turnover per game — but he’s making an impact far beyond his individual production, easing the offensive burden both Booker and Beal carried last season.

Beal dribbles 30% less before attempting a shot so far this year and is shooting 42.1% from 3, near a career high, while Booker dribbles 51% less before taking a shot and is shooting 41.9% from deep. best grade of his career.

“I think somebody from the outside looking in last year understood that they were being asked to do more than what they typically do. And so that’s where I felt I could help,” said Jones. “I try to make their job easy. Try to set the table for them, put them in good positions to just score the ball and do what they do at an extremely elite level.”

Whether that will be enough to help the Suns win a title remains to be seen, but for the first time this Big 3 now has a setup man.

“Tyus makes our lives so much easier,” Beal said. “I have a lot more weight off my shoulders. We can just go and do what everybody knows us for.”