Bradley Beal takes a 6Th man role for the Phoenix Suns was not on most fans’ bingo cards for the 2024-25 season. With PHX mediocre and failing to gain any momentum, Mike Budenholzer and his staff are convinced that Beal being an offensive spark plug creator would be more beneficial. In the midst of it all, Kevin Durant gave his two cents on the matter.
“Is it really a change?” questioned KD regarding Beal’s new role. Durant “argues” the shooter is still getting his necessary touches, more or less. “You (Beal) is still playing a lot of minutes and getting his shots up. The last three games, I just feel like he’s more comfortable.”
“Is it really a change?” Kevin Durant on Bradley Beal’s bench role.
“You still play a lot of minutes and get his shot up. The last 3 games I just feel like he’s more comfortable and understanding where his shot is coming from.”
Think Beal is just more aggressive. #solar pic.twitter.com/qCWn0UNy5N
— Duane Rankin (@DuaneRankin) 10 January 2025
Since coming off the bench the past three days, Beal has had two very efficient and successful games. against the Pacers, he dropped a team lead of 25 points on 10-15 shooting from the field. Last night’s win over the Hawks saw him have 25 once again on 11-16 shooting. Both of those performances sandwiched a sub-10-point outing between them.
The Suns are 2-1 in Beal’s “benched” era, which is an incredibly small sample size, but with the way the season went for them, there might be something to this.
Many thought a star of Brad’s caliber would be scorned by being relegated to the bench. However, he has taken rookie Ryan Dunn under his wing after Dunn was named in the starting XI in his place. “Brad is a brother to me. He’s got my back and I’ve got his back. He’s a great teammate.” said Dunn.
Is there more to Beal’s new role?
It would be pretty foolish of fans to think that Beal was moved to the bench solely because of the Suns’ paltry record. Jimmy Butler wanting out of Miami surely had something to do with Phoenix’s sudden lineup change.
The former Wizards All-Star has a unique no-trade clause in his contract. This limits the Suns options on where he can be traded since Beal is the one who can approve any trade destination.
So it has been heavily speculated that Mat Ishbia’s front office has put Beal in several uncomfortable situations like this to make him feel “unwanted” in Phoenix. Perhaps feeling this way would allow him to waive his no-trade clause, leading to potential Butler trades.
However, this is a rather complicated test. Bradley has very recently made it clear that the Suns have not spoken to him face-to-face about any transactions. Jimmy is in his own battle with Pat Riley on the East Coast, something Riley has never faced from his superstars. Safe to say this 2025 trade deadline is going to be a pretty interesting watch.
