2025 Phoenix Suns Preseason Preview
The Phoenix Suns finished with a record of 49 wins and 33 losses before losing to the Minnesota Timberwolves in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs. The Suns spend the offseason attempting to retool around their star studded big three.
(AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Kevin Durant played 75 games last season, his most since missing the 2019-20 season with injury. In these 75 games he took 19.1 shots per game with an efg of .567. Curiously these numbers are very similar to what he did in Brooklyn during the 2021-22 season when he played 55 games, the most out of the Net’s big three that year (Harden: 44, Irving: 29). His co-stars last season played significantly more games with Booker at 68 and Beal at 53.
The arrival of Bradley Beal gave the Suns a new look, one of an offensive power house. Beal saw his role regress, moving from a first option in Washington to a 3rd in Phoenix. This game with a hit in Beals points per game but he did achieve the best effective field goal percentage of his career.
The addition of Beal meant the subtraction of point guard Chris Paul. This lead the suns to play a sort of point guard by committee. Devin Booker achieved the highest assist average of his career as a result, and all 3 members of the Suns big three had at least 5 assists per game. These numbers should be expected to decrease as Tyus Jones joins the team looking to be the main distributor for the team.
The contracts on this team are made up of 3 max contracts each taking up roughly 35% of the cap. Added to this is the 18 million dollar contract of Jusuf Nurkic and 15.6 million dollar contract of Grayson Allen. Royce O’Neale (9.8 million) and Josh Okogie (8.2 million) round out the list of players making more than a minimum or rookies contract for the suns this year. All of these players are also under contract for next season. With the Suns being well over the second apron they are limited in flexibility as they hope for production out of their newcomers and that their top heavy roster can establish chemistry that allows them to run deep into the post season.
