Best and worst case scenarios for Bradley Beal's return, what's next for Phoenix Suns
Bradley Beal was starting to look like that bucket-getter who averaged 30-plus points in back-to-back seasons before going down with what appears to be another long-term injury.
Beal suffered an ankle sprain in the Suns' home defeat on Friday against New York when landing on Knicks guard Donte DiVincenzo’s foot on a 3-point basket with 7:28 left in the quarter.
The three-time All-Star made the free throw after a review of the play upgraded the foul to a flagrant one, but then checked out and never returned.
The Suns have played most of the early season without Beal as he’s only seen action in six games, but they will once again be without him for an extended period.
Here’s what's next for Beal and the Suns (13-12), who conclude their five-game homestand Sunday against his former team, Washington.
Best/worst case for Bradley Beal’s return
Sources told The Arizona Republic over the weekend Beal will likely miss two to three weeks with the injury.
X-rays were negative, which is good news especially when considering how bad it looked live and on replay, but don’t expect a quick return for Beal, who has been dealing with back issues this season, too.
Best case scenario for Beal is he returns in two weeks.
Worst case? Out four weeks or a month, depending on how one views a calendar.
Devin Booker badly sprained his left ankle in the opener at Golden State and sat the next three games.
Beal’s looked worse.
However, if he’s able to return in three weeks — and stay healthy after that — the Suns will have a little more than half a season left before the playoffs to build some chemistry with him.
Beal must still take care of his lower back, too.
That limited him to three games as the Suns carved out a three-week window to rehab the injury and get him back on the court.
Beal returned Tuesday against Golden State after missing 12 consecutive games and scored 16 points.
He said his back was fine, but battled fatigue in his 27 minutes of action.
All the conditioning and ramp-up can’t fully prepare a player for the first game back after being out for weeks.
Beal played in the second of a back-to-back Wednesday versus Brooklyn and went for 14 points in the Big 3 debut in logging 34 minutes.
With two games back under his belt, the Suns took Beal off the minute restriction, but asked him to be smart. He started strong before suddenly finding himself grabbing at his ankle in serious pain.
Time to work his way back — again — from injury.
Clippers, Lakers, Mavs await Suns over next three weeks
Phoenix is 10th in the West right now.
If the playoffs started today, the Suns would need two road wins in the play-in to land the eighth seed.
Fortunately, they've got time to improve and get Beal healthy, but there’s no guarantee this will be the final major injury for this team.
If anything, there’s a good chance they’ll experience more setbacks because 10 players have already missed at least one game this season due to injury and the Suns aren’t even 30 games deep.
Here’s their schedule over the next three weeks.
Sunday vs. Washington (4-20), first meeting of the season.
Tuesday at Portland (6-17), 1-0 vs. Blazers.
Friday at Sacramento (14-9), 0-1 vs. Kings.
Christmas Day vs. Dallas (15-9), first meeting.
Dec. 27 at Houston (13-9), first meeting.
Dec. 29 vs. Charlotte (7-17).
Dec 31 vs. Orlando (16-8).
Jan. 1 vs. Portland (6-17), 1-0 vs. Blazers.
Jan. 3 vs. Los Angeles Clippers (14-10), first meeting.
Jan. 5 vs. Miami (15-11), first meeting.
Jan. 7 vs. Memphis (6-18), 2-0 vs. Grizzlies.
Jan. 8 at Los Angeles Clippers (14-10), second meeting.
Jan. 14 at Los Angeles Lakers (15-11), 0-3 vs. Lakers.
Only four of those 13 games are against teams with losing records — and Grizzlies All-Star Ja Morant's 25-game suspension ends Tuesday.
They face Deandre Ayton and the Blazers twice.
Ayton might bring a little extra, especially for that New Year’s Day matchup in Phoenix, but there are more competitive challenges for the Suns during this stretch.
Three of the more eye-catching matchups are against Dallas, Orlando and the Clippers twice.
Then there’s the Lakers, who Phoenix will play five times this season because of their In-Season Tournament quarterfinals matchup.
Maybe Beal will be back by then to help snap that skid.
More Suns: What we learned from Suns' loss to Knicks as Bradley Beal goes down again with injury
More Booker and Durant
The Big 3 played just one full game together.
Booker and Durant combined for 61 points on 18-of-33 shooting (22-of-25 from the line) in that loss to Brooklyn while Beal managed 14 as he’s still trying to find his way.
Expect more of the Booker-Durant show unless the Suns can find a consistent third scorer.
The Suns run an ample amount of iso ball for Durant and Booker that invites a double and can lead to open shots for their teammates.
The problem is that can wear down those two and come fourth quarter, they don’t have that same energy to finish the game.
Can someone else help them consistently close?
Grayson Allen? Eric Gordon? Someone else?
Booker and Durant are the only two who initiate offense and finish with Beal being out.
Suns big Jusuf Nurkic is a great passer, but how much offense do they want to run through him with Durant and Booker on the floor. Might want to do so to possibly give them easier basket opportunities.
With the 12 different starting lineups Phoenix has had going into Sunday’s game and guys being in and out, they don’t have great chemistry, but mostly everyone has played with everyone.
Find favorable lineups with Booker and/or Durant
Here are four for starters going into Sunday’s game.
Gordon, Allen, Nurkic, Booker and Durant: Averaging 38.8 points on 60.3% shooting (63% on 3s) in six games.
Assists are high at 11.2. So are the turnovers at 4.7, but the lineup has a plus-7.2.
Keita Bates-Diop, Gordon, Allen, Nurkic and Durant: Averaging 22.7 points on 58% shooting (61.5% on 3s) in six games.
Low assists at 5.7 to 2.3 turnovers. The lineup is a plus-2.3 and it also has the best defensive rating of any lineup that has played at least six games together at 124.5.
This lineup has played 48 total minutes.
Josh Okogie, Gordon, Bates-Diop, Nurkic and Booker: Averaging 20.7 points on 50% shooting (45% on 3s).
Also averaging 5.7 assists to 2.3 turnovers, but the lineup has a plus-3.3.
Drew Eubanks, Allen, Gordon, Okogie and Durant: Have the highest offensive rating at 151.9 and the fastest pace at 105.81 of the six lineups that have played at least six games.
Only played a total of 12 minutes in eight games, but it may deserve more of a look moving forward.
Can defense improve?
Suns coach Frank Vogel was quick to applaud the team’s defensive intensity in training camp and early in the regular season.
Stressed having better execution, but he was happy with the effort.
Those votes of approval are coming fewer and further between from the defensive-minded coach.
The Suns are not only 20th in the NBA in defensive rating, but they still aren’t closing out well on 3s and have a freeway running through their paint — opponents just drive in there and score whenever.
They are surrendering 114.2 points a game with 52.9 of that in the interior to rank 23rd in paint points allowed per game.
The Suns are actually 10th in the league in defensive 3-point shooting at 35.7%, but they looked awful in allowing Jalen Brunson to go 9-of-9 from deep in Friday’s loss to the Knicks.
New York made 17-of-29 from deep as Phoenix gave up a season-high in points in the 139-122 loss.
Can’t give up the paint, the 3 and freebies off turnovers.
Phoenix is 21 in points allowed off turnovers at 17.3 a game.
So, they’re not hustling to get back after making a mistake, which is when you should be at your most urgent to do that.
Harder to do that on live ball turnovers, but the Suns are lacking urgency on defense.
Have opinions about the current state of the Suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at dmrankin@gannett.com or contact him at 480-787-1240. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @DuaneRankin.
Support local journalism. Start your online subscription
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: What's next for Phoenix Suns, Bradley Beal as Wizards matchup nears
