Why Phoenix Suns and Big 3 of Devin Booker, Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal will make NBA Playoffs

NEW ORLEANS — Jusuf Nurkic has said all along the Phoenix Suns are built for the playoffs.

Three dynamic scorers, the NBA’s best 3-point shooter, a passing big man who can board, capable role players and a head coach who won a championship in the bubble.

At their best, they’re scary. Just ask Nikola Jokic.

“They're definitely a threat to any team in the West," said the two-time NBA MVP after the Suns went into his house for a second time this season and came out with a victory in Denver.

Any team that can do that against the defending NBA champions should make the playoffs.

The Suns have beaten Minnesota, the current top seed in the West, and Milwaukee, the current second seed in the East.

They’re also the same team that went 1-3 against the Spurs, losing their last matchup during this five-game road trip to a San Antonio team that was without rookie phenom Victor Wembanyama.

They’re also the same team that couldn’t build off topping the Nuggets and lost by 25 points to the Thunder on this same road trip after trailing by as many as 29 points.

“It causes sleepless nights, for sure,” Suns star guard Bradley Beal said after Saturday’s practice at Tulane. “It’s not the most ideal. You obviously want to continue to stack wins at this point of the year. So you play your best hoops going into the playoffs, but I think everything is correctable.”

The Suns (43-31) face the toughest remaining NBA schedule, continue to play inconsistent, but here’s why they’ll somehow make the playoffs this season.

Essentially full strength

The Suns have battled injuries all season that have resulted in 22 different starting lineups.

Obviously, that's not ideal. But it has definitely been a contributing force for why the Suns are where they are in the seventh spot, but the only player on the injury report hasn’t played all season in Damion Lee (knee).

Nurkic is battling an ankle injury, Beal’s right ring finger is swollen and sprained and Devin Booker just hasn’t looked right since returning from his ankle sprain. The dude is 18-of-64 from 3 in his 10 games back from injury, but the Suns are the healthiest it has been all season.

Mission accomplished. Now go out, finish the season strong make the playoffs.

“Our No. 1 goal is to be healthy,” Nurkic said. “We want to win every game the rest of the season and it doesn’t change our goal.”

The rotations have mostly been set to help them find some sort of continuity down the stretch, too.

Efficient, explosive offense

The Suns can score with anyone and often make it looks easy.

They’re fourth in field goal percentage, fifth in the league in efficiency and three-point shooting percentage, ninth in offensive rating and 10^th in scoring.

The Suns have adopted a philosophy of making the extra pass. When executed, the Suns get open looks even for their Big 3 of Kevin Durant, Booker and Beal.

Grayson Allen is having a career year from 3 in shooting a league-best 47%.

The Suns have seven players shooting between 47% in Allen to 36.2% with Booker, who has been ice cold in his last 10 games, but fully capable of catching fire for a three to five game stretch.

There's no better time than the present to get back on track.

Suns coach Frank Vogel wants the Suns to jack up more 3s, but Booker and Durant excel in the mid-range and Beal can get into the paint. They have enough guys outside of those three who can nail 3s. If the Suns have ball movement, player movement, and actually run some more plays with screens and pin downs to free up guys, they can ride their offense into the postseason.

Can’t afford to miss the playoffs

Here’s the deal.

The Suns can’t spend over the second tax apron, have a total taxable salary of $191.2 million, an estimated luxury tax bill of $67.8 million, have Durant, Booker and Beal, make all those trades, moving Deandre Ayton and Chris Paul in particular — and not make the playoffs.

That simply can't happen. Well, it can, but it shouldn't.

The season hasn’t been a flop. The Suns are 12 games above .500, are seventh in the West and have opportunities to move up and out the play-in tournament by beating teams ahead of them.

The schedule is brutal, but the Suns have an opportunities with eight games remaining.

It's just hard to imagine doing all of that and falling short of the postseason.

All hell will break loose if that happens. Suns team owner Mat Ishbia had no problems firing Monty Williams two years removed from him coaching the Suns to the 2021 finals.

He didn’t stay pat before. Why would Ishbia now, especially after spending so much money to put together what he called the best roster in the league before the season began?

Durant will never hear the end of it if the Suns fall short of the postseason. Neither will Booker.

Neither will the Suns. To waste Durant playing more games than he has since before suffering the Achilles injury in the 2019 finals that sidelined him all 2019-20 season won't go over well.

They have no choice but to come through when it really, really matters most and make the playoffs.

ave 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: Why the Phoenix Suns will make the NBA playoffs this season