3 possible closing lineup ideas for Phoenix Suns next season
By Ian Levy
The Phoenix Suns went all in on perimeter scoring this offseason, swinging a trade to turn Chris Paul into Bradley Beal. After acquiring Kevin Durant at the deadline last year they now boast an impressive array of offensive talent and a somewhat untested array of role players around them.
The Suns rotation is far from settled but the big question marks are all about who will surround Beal, Durant and Booker in different situations. Most of these questions will likely be answered by a regular season of trial and error but we can already fantasize about some of the experiments we'd like to see them run.
Closing lineup ideas for Phoenix Suns: 3. Eric Gordon — Bradley Beal — Devin Booker — Kevin Durant — Deandre Ayton
The Suns don't have a traditional, starting-caliber point guard on the roster but that's not much of a problem with three elite offensive initiators like Devin Booker, Bradley Beal and Kevin Durant. Those three will be on the court together a ton, most often with Deandre Ayton at center as a defensive anchor and screener.
The fifth player will depend a lot on the situation but Eric Gordon will see plenty of minutes with his experience, shooting ability and ancillary creation and there's a decent chance this is both the Suns' most frequent starting lineup and their most-used lineup over the course of the season.
This group packs the Suns' five-best offensive players into a single lineup and will be a nightmare to defend given their versatility, shooting and ability to work from multiple points of attack. This won't be the Suns' best defensive lineup but there is more than enough balance and for any situation where they want to try and force opponents to adjust to them, or simply overwhelm opponents with their talent, this is probably the group.