Bradley Beal knows the kind of pressure he has on his shoulders as he enters his second year playing for the Phoenix Suns. His team’s embarrassing first-round sweep at the hands of the Minnesota Timberwolves is a cloud that will remain over their heads until they redeem themselves in the spring of 2025.
While many Suns fans will agree that Beal was a great addition to the team, they will also note that he could have done better if we look at what he did during his time with the Washington Wizards. He needed to find a way to remain a dangerous offensive weapon despite having fewer touches than Kevin Durant and Devin Booker.
He talked about what the team’s new head coach expects out of him as he looks to help the Suns make a more meaningful postseason run in April.
Bradley Beal addresses the need to ‘program’ his aggressiveness for the Phoenix Suns
Beal revealed that head coach Mike Budenholzer is making sweeping changes to how he and the Suns are running things, saying that the former Milwaukee Bucks head coach is encouraging the team to be more proactive offensively with the quality of talent they have on the roster.
Per ClutchPoints’ Nathan Yasis:
“I’m trying to program myself to just be more aggressive. “Bud is forcin’ me to do that. He’s forcin’ all of us to be like that, like shoot more 3s, look to shoot, look to be aggressive,” Beal remarked.
He went to specifics on how Budenholzer wants the offense to run:
“It’s different in a lot of ways, so we’re all tryna kinda program ourselves to stop passin’ up shots, be more mindful of shootin’ 3s. I shot a stepback 2 at the top of the key, and I was mad. I’m like, ‘S—, if I take one more step back, it’s a 3.’ So, it’s just tryna get that mindset back, but I think just bein’ more aggressive helps me in that fashion,” he continued via a video from Gerald Bourguet of Fansided.
Beal is the biggest beneficiary of this change if you use the analytics lens to look at his performances. The 31-year-old guard finished with his lowest PPG average (18.2) since the 2015-16 season. Should Budenholzer’s plans work, it wouldn’t be strange to expect great things from Beal and the Phoenix Suns next season.
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