The Phoenix Suns are having an identity crisis. Who are they going forward?

The Phoenix Suns still don’t have a fully healthy roster beyond the halfway point of the season as Bradley Beal has missed their last four games with a left hamstring injury.

“He’s still having discomfort with high intensity work,” Suns coach Frank Vogel said before Sunday’s win over the Los Angeles Lakers at Footprint Center.

Considering 12 of their current players have missed at least a game due to injury or illness this season, the Suns might never be full strength, even for the postseason, but they have established an identity and style of play.

Defend the paint, react to contest 3s

The Suns (34-24) are an offensive team. They are third in field-goal percentage at 49.6%, seventh in 3-point shooting percentage at 37.8%, eighth in offensive rating and 11^th in scoring at 117.5 a game.

“We have a great shooting team, one of the greatest shooting teams I’ve ever been a part of, but you got to make the most of it,” Suns veteran guard Eric Gordon said. “We should come down and have a good shot every time.”

The Suns aren't the worst defensive team, but certainly have room to improve there. Phoenix is 14^th in defensive rating, 15^th in points allowed at 114.5, 16^th in points in the paint allowed and 24^th in second-chance points surrendered.

The Lakers scored 52 paint points and shot 15-of-35 from 3 for the game on Sunday, but Phoenix limited them to 3-of-9 from 3 and just eight paint points in the fourth quarter by battling inside and giving multiple efforts to challenge 3-point attempts.

“We were flying around and putting bodies in front of drivers at the rim,” Vogel said after Sunday’s game. “The Lakers played well offensively, but we did enough. We tried to put a wall in front of the rim and atop of the scouting report was absorb contact, show your hands. You got to earn no calls.”

Extra pass, hoist 3s

With seven rotational players shooting between the high 40 percentile and mid 30-percentile, the Suns are seventh in the NBA in 3-point shooting at 37.8%, but 26^th in attempts per game at 31.6.

Vogel wants the Suns to launch many more a night.

Case in point: Grayson Allen went 6-of-12 from deep in scoring a team-high 24 points in Sunday’s win, but Vogel felt he should’ve taken 15 3s.

Allen leads the league in 3-point shooting at 48.6%, but he’s only attempting 5.3. When he only launched two (made both) in 37 minutes of last Thursday’s loss at Dallas, that was unacceptable.

“We called that out, we have to be better,” Vogel said. “Got to get him more shots. The ball movement has got to be better, and we’ve got to make the extra pass more.”

Devin Booker and Kevin Durant, 1-2 on the team in field-goal attempts at 19.3 and 19.1, are mid-range marauders. Nearly 23% of Durant’s points are from mid-range (22.9%).

For Booker, it’s 20.6%. The Suns need that element to help create offensive balance, but when the head coach is calling for more 3s, that’s going to be factored into the scoring equation.

The Suns are clearly tougher to guard with Beal. He’s still one of the game’s best scorers despite averaging just 18.2 points a game this season, can facilitate, but his recent injury history must be taken into consideration when analyzing Phoenix moving forward.

Playing without Beal

Beal has played 60, 40 and 50 games in his last three respective regular seasons in Washington and only seen action in 30 in his first year with the Suns. The most games Beal could play this regular season is 54 — and that’s if he returns Thursday against Houston and suits up in Phoenix’s remaining 24 games.

The Suns might be without Beal for considerably more time, leaving Booker and Durant to fuel the offense even more. They’re already accounting for 40.2% of the team’s scoring as two of the NBA’s top-10 scorers with Durant fifth at 28 points a game and Booker eighth at 27.5.

They're also 1-2 on the team in assists — a career-high seven for Booker and 5.6 for Durant — but a rise in those numbers will mean the Suns are punishing teams for blitzing their All-Star 1-2 punch.

Allen and Royce O’Neale delivered the most damage Sunday, each hitting six 3s on the Lakers.

“That's what we're going to need, especially if teams are going to tailor their defense to leaving those guys open,” Booker said. “Making them pay.”

The Suns are 14^th in assists at 26.7, but they’re 11-0 when churning out at least 32 dimes. Phoenix had just 20 in losing to the Mavericks and 23 in falling to the Rockets in last week’s road back-to-back.

“The Dallas game, the Houston game, we didn't do a good job of exploiting that in getting other guys shots, specifically myself," Durant said. “We’ve got to be better at that moving forward, specifically with Brad not being there.”

Iso ball is part of the Suns' offensive package, as it should be with two of the game’s best buckets, but when teams trap Booker and Durant, that leads to ball movement and everyone else on the floor needing to be ready to launch.

“A lot of times, we go to the KD post-ups, I try to get one pass away to be in a position to shoot because those are the shots that we need, whoever is in that position, to shoot and knock down,” Allen said.

Starting five, rotation

Suns team owner Mat Ishbia said before the season they had the NBA’s best team led by their Big 3. They traded Deandre Ayton right before training camp in a three-team deal, got 7-footer Jusuf Nurkic and Nassir Little from Portland, Allen from Milwaukee and filled out their roster with vet minimums.

The Suns were deemed “top heavy” as critics felt the bench would be their downfall.

“I try not to pay too much attention to that kind of stuff just because are those people here at practice, are those people in meetings?” Suns backup big Drew Eubanks said. “They’re not here so they don't know exactly what our game plan is, how we’re supposed to play, how the coaches want us to play. I think those guys at the beginning of the year, myself included, even now, are playing a certain way for this team.”

The Suns were 30-21 at the trade deadline, but they still shook up the roster in moving Chimezie Metu, Jordan Goodwin, Yuta Watanabe and Keita Bates-Diop in a three-team deal and acquired O’Neale from Brooklyn and David Roddy from Memphis.

The trade added $20 million to the Suns' financial bill, but O’Neale has made an early impact.

“He is a super-easy guy to play with,” Allen said. “He has been great defensively for us. We’ve asked him to guard a bunch of different matchups one through five and he’s been good. Helping us out on the boards, even if it is not him getting rebounds, he’s really physical with blocking guys out. He’s not afraid to take shots and make them.”

Shooting 37% from 3 this season, O’Neale tied a career-high Sunday with 20 points and 10 rebounds. His final 3 gave Phoenix a 121-108 advantage with 1:24 left in the fourth.

“That’s his game,” Durant said as he and O’Neale were teammates last season in Brooklyn. “That’s been his game since he came into the league. That’s how he was able to stay in this league as an undrafted guy.”

Start Allen or O'Neale?

The Suns could start O’Neale over Allen as he’s started (290) more than half his career games (501). He made his first start Sunday for Phoenix with Beal being out.

If Beal misses more time, Vogel could continue starting O’Neale even when Gordon returns from left groin soreness that sidelined him Sunday. Averaging 12.5 points and shooting 38.9% from 3, Gordon has started in 24 of the 49 games he’s played in his first season in Phoenix.

A healthy Suns team probably starts Booker, Beal, Allen, Durant and Nurkic. The Suns have had 21 different starting lineups with that group starting the most games together at 19 (13-6 record).

So, let’s say that’s their starting unit in the postseason. Vogel and his coaching staff must determine who comes off the bench. This could be the Suns nine to 10-man rotation off that starting unit:

—Starters: Booker, Beal, Allen, Durant and Nurkic.

—Next four: O’Neale, Gordon, Bol Bol and Eubanks.

—One more: Josh Okogie, Thaddeus Young or Little.

Big 3 check ins, check outs

Remember, the rotation centers around the Big 3.

When together, Booker has played the entire first and third quarters and re-entered a little before the halfway point of the second and fourth quarters. Durant has come out late in the first and third and started the second and fourth while Beal has checked out midway through the first and third, checked back in late in those quarters and started the second and fourth.

This enables the Suns to have two of the Big 3 on the court for most of the game. Vogel’s challenge has been trying to determine the rest of the rotation, especially with so many injuries.

Nurkic’s minutes have been dictated by foul trouble and whether Vogel chooses to leave him in the game when opponents go small.

Nurkic even made a point to say, with a smile, after Sunday’s win he wasn’t going to give Vogel “a reason to sub” him out of the game. Matched up against All-Star Anthony Davis, Nurkic posted a double-double of 18 points, a season-high 22 rebounds, one shy of tying his career high, and added seven assists.

The Suns are 0-4 without Nurkic, but they’re always two quick fouls on him in the first quarter from changing course or sitting him to go small. Eubanks has been Nurkic’s backup, but the Suns signed veteran big Thaddeus Young after the deadline because he can play the five in small ball and switch defensively.

“When you’re trying to beat certain teams down the stretch, sometimes you have to go with those smaller lineups, but I think with having me brings a different dynamic to the team with my skill set,” Young said. “Being able to play off the doubles, get into the middle of the lane and make certain reads and kickouts to guys.”

Young seeks role; Bol Bol's found one?

Young grabbed eight rebounds with six on the offensive glass in his Suns debut Friday at Houston as Nurkic sat with an ankle sprain. Young didn’t play Sunday, but he could become a rotational regular.

“I know those guys are coming in here and understand what’s at stake and they understand the seriousness in how we approach things,” Okogie said about O'Neale, Young and Roddy.

Then there’s Bol, who has forced the Suns to give him a serious rotational look. Hardly playing early this season, Bol posted a season-high double-double of 25 points and 14 rebounds Friday at Houston.

“Super proud of him,” Booker said after Friday’s game. “Got in there ready to play.”

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Bol followed that up with 11 points on Sunday. The Suns are experimenting with a lineup featuring a frontline of Durant, Bol and either Nurkic or Eubanks at the five.

“When you look at the top teams in the league, they all have size,” Durant said. “I think that’s what the league is going towards now, just more size up and down your lineup.”

Durant noted how the NBA’s top two teams — Boston and Minnesota — have big lineups. The Celtics’ frontline consists of 6-8 Jayson Tatum, 6-6 Jaylen Brown and 7-2 Kristaps Porzingis while 6-9 Jaden McDaniels, 7-footer Karl-Anthony Towns and 7-1 Rudy Gobert make up the Timberwolves’ frontline.

Bol doesn’t start, but he gives Phoenix “another dimension” as Durant says to help combat bigger teams.

“We’ve got Thad and Royce who play big as well down in the paint,” Durant said. “We’ve got to utilize all that stuff.”

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.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: How offense, bench rotation will define Phoenix Suns in final stretch