Suns guard Bradley Beal has been progressing well and is ahead of schedule after spraining his ankle earlier in December, according to The Athletic’s Shams Charania (Twitter link). He’s now being listed as questionable for Phoenix’s Friday game against the Hornets and is set to return early in the Suns’ upcoming six-game homestand, Charania tweets.
After being traded from the Wizards to the Suns in the offseason to form a new “big three” alongside Kevin Durant and Devin Booker, Beal has been limited to just six games all season. The trio of Durant, Booker and Beal has only appeared in a single full game — Beal was injured early in their second game together.
In his six appearances this year, Beal has averaged 14.7 points and shot 42.9% from beyond the arc.
We have more from the Suns:
- While Adrian Wojnarowski reported that Durant was frustrated with the team’s play of late — they’ve dropped seven of their past 10 — Charania downplayed the notion that it was anything out of the ordinary for a struggling team (Twitter link). According to Charania, the Suns and Durant are frustrated, but there isn’t anything deeper going on.
- During the Suns’ Wednesday victory over the Rockets, Durant and Booker appeared to engage in a fiery exchange of words, according to Kelly Iko of The Athletic. However, both stars said those honest conversations are part of the growing process for the team. “It was good for us to go through some stuff early in the game to have those heated conversations where we can be like ‘All right, this is what we’re both supposed to do,’ and come back into the locker room and talk it over again,” Durant said. “Sometimes, heated conversations are good for teams because you can be honest and real with one another, and then, you talk it over and move on. We’re all figuring it out. It’s hard with a new team, new group of guys, guys in and out of the lineup. You want to get comfortable with those conversations, and I think we’re on our way there.“
- Suns big man Chimezie Metu had a career game on Christmas Day against the Mavericks, scoring 23 points and pulling down 19 rebounds, both of which were career highs. Metu played a season-high 34 minutes as Jusuf Nurkic missed the contest. “He obviously scored the ball really well, he made some great passes out of the half-roll when they were trapping [Booker and Durant] up top,” Suns guard Grayson Allen said, per Dana Scott of the Arizona Republic. “He was a really good decision maker and he’s a good lob threat in the low, in the dunker, a good finisher down there, and knocking down threes. He was really all over the court.” Metu is on a one-year, minimum-salary contract and is set to be an unrestricted free agent this summer.