Bradley Beal diary: ‘This is the most exciting part of the year’

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Playoffs?

Yes, there will be playoffs for Bradley Beal and the Phoenix Suns after the odds were stacked against them.

Beal told Andscape in March that it was “all hands on deck” in regard to the Suns’ then-questionable hopes of securing a top-six NBA Western Conference playoff seed. Phoenix, however, won seven of its last 10 games and received the needed help from West foes to land a playoff berth and stay out of play-in tournament territory.

Beal played a key role, averaging 21 points, 6 rebounds and 4.5 assists in April, and scored 36 points in a 125-106 regular-season ending win against the Minnesota Timberwolves on April 14. The first-year Suns guard will make his first playoff appearance since 2021 when Phoenix plays the third-seeded Timberwolves in the first round with Game 1 on Saturday (ESPN, 3:30 p.m. ET).

“It’s tough. I’m excited about it. I’ve been there before so I’m not going to put a lot on it,” Beal told Andscape on April 9 after the Suns practice. “We obviously have huge expectations and goals, but the playoffs are a fun time of basketball. I’m just excited to be back and playing in those meaningful games with the group that we have. And it is definitely a day-at-a-time approach.

“These series are very long. We know what the other opponent loves to eat and how they play. So, it’ll be fun, man. I’m just excited to get back to competitive, high-level basketball again and go to war with the guys I got.”

Beal, his wife Kamiah Adams-Beal, and three young sons, Bradley “Deuce” II, Braylon and Braxton, moved to Phoenix after the Washington Wizards traded him to the Suns in June 2023. The St. Louis native has said that he is joining his first true championship contender in his NBA career with fellow superstars Kevin Durant and Devin Booker, and coach Frank Vogel. The Suns have never won an NBA championship. The 6-foot-4, 207-pounder averaged 18.2 points, 5 assists and 4.4 rebounds for the Suns in 53 games during the 2023-24 season.

This season, Beal, 30, has shared insight into his life on and off the court in the Valley of the Sun and on the road during his monthly video and diary on Andscape. NBA players Draymond Green, Vince Carter, Trae Young, CJ McCollum, Fred VanVleet, De’Aaron Fox, Cade Cunningham, James Wiseman and Josh Jackson have participated in previous diaries.

The following is the seventh entry of Beal’s season-long diary with Andscape. Beal talks about the Suns’ championship aspirations; playing against guard Anthony Edwards, center Rudy Gobert and the Minnesota Timberwolves in the first round of the playoffs; how he may visit the George Floyd Memorial during one of his playoff off days in Minneapolis; former NBA star Blake Griffin’s retirement and more in his latest entry.

I believe the Suns can win a championship, man. We have all the pieces that are necessary. We have unbelievable staff that can best prep us on a nightly basis, and give us all some game plans to follow. Our mentality, our drive; we really want it, we’re really hungry. We have a lot of guys on this team and in this organization that haven’t won at all. So, that gives a little bit more push and fight edge to do something historical, like bring a championship to a franchise for the first time. That’s definitely what brought me here. That’s what lured me to this place.

Being out there with Book, who’s played in the Finals before. KD has won two [championships]. Damion Lee has got one. Coach has got one. Fiz [assistant coach David Fizdale] has two or three. So, we have the stature in our locker room who’ve won at that level, who knows what it takes to get us there and it’s awesome. We can kind of rely on them for their expertise and helping us get there.

The last game of the year was electrifying. Obviously, the tensions are high. And what is at stake is beyond important. Everybody is playing for a seed. Everybody’s trying to secure their destiny in one way or another. And everybody kind of somewhat controlled their destiny. Our biggest thing was we had to win no matter what was going on around the league. We had to go out and win to better position ourselves in the playoffs. And we needed a little help from the Lakers to beat the Pelicans. Granted [the Lakers] got their job done for us, so we were able to just lock into what we needed to do and beat a tough Minnesota team.

It’s crazy to see how competitive it is. A few years ago, I used to be on the other side looking in. The last [regular-season] game of the year is always supercrazy in the West. And just seeing how that one game determines almost the outcome of everything and now to be a part of it was crazy, too. It’s exciting because everybody in the outside world more or less is wondering what’s going to happen. Who’s in, who’s out?’ Everybody gives their predictions, but we locked into what we needed to do and it was a fun brand of basketball to be able to go out there and compete, basically playoff hoops.

[The Wolves win last Sunday] was another game to me, man. Everybody probably puts a lot of whatever on it, but to me it was another game and I was just super locked-in; just getting myself, my mind, my body and just kind of my mentality, ready for the playoffs and just kind of how that will be. Minnesota’s a very tough team, beyond talented. If we weren’t ready to go, that’s 20-point loss, of course. So, it was me just being in the zone, being locked-in, being ready for the playoffs. That’s all it was.

“It was crazy [after the win Sunday]. Emotions were very high. It’s probably the best feeling game we’ve had all year. Obviously, it was the last game of the [regular-season], so you can kind of breathe a little bit and on top of securing your position in the playoffs to give yourself potentially a week worth of rest. You can’t beat that. So, we all kind of toasted and cheers to another successful season. We are going into the playoffs healthy, which is something that is one of our biggest goals … And I completed Year 12. Booker completed Year 9, K [Durant] Year 16. So, it’s crazy to see that. Now we get to focus on the postseason and really dive into while we’re all here.

I know for sure our last 10 games were around the toughest in the league. I know we finished 7-3 in those games and they were all playoff teams. The majority of them were in the West, but we played some teams in the East, too, that are high playoff teams. We did a really good job, man. For one, we’re healthy. Two, we’re really starting to put together a good brand of basketball at the right time and everybody’s clicking. We definitely want to be hitting our stride going into this time. But it’s still the playoffs. We still got to show up every single day. We still got to make sure we’re prepared. We still got to make sure we’re locked into our opponent, because they’re going to be locked into us. So, it is fun, man. This is the most exciting part of the year that you could just go compete at the highest level and it’s about who wants it the most.

The last five games we’ve been doing a really good job of just meshing it and jelling really well. But the funny thing about is we’re still figuring each other out. We’re still building what the potential of this team could be. Obviously, everybody has huge expectations and wants to put a lot of onus on all this. ‘It is their first year. They got to get it done this year.’ And we didn’t really have that mindset. We are looking past this year. Obviously, we want to get it done this year, but we have to give ourselves time to build it up and build this foundation the way we want it to be. And granted, we’ve been doing a really good job over, I would say, the last five, 10 games of really putting the pieces together, making sure we’re healthy and just jelling the right way.

I could talk about it a little bit [the verbal sparring with Edwards and Finch]. It is all love for me. One of the [Wolves] assistants didn’t really like how the game was being officiated. He thought I fouled one of their guys. We were just chirping back and forth. And then their head coach kind of came in and he got involved and said some stuff. I’m not going to say, but he said something that kind of escalated the matter a little bit. And then Ant [Edwards] was defending his coach, rightfully so. So, I’m defending my team and my coach, too. But it was all of love.

It’s the heat of the moment. Everybody wants their team to win and play well. And it is just the emotions and the stakes of the game. Me and Ant are still cool. We’ve always been cool. We won’t let that get bigger than what it is. And the same with their staff. I always respect all coaches and staffs, but that’s just the height of the game. That’s just the emotions of it. There was a lot of profanity it, a lot of cussing. I was going back and forth, but me and Ant chopped it up at halftime. It was fun. It was good.

Rudy [Gobert] at the basket is never good. Rudy, he’s a defensive player of the year for a reason. But we don’t fear that. You still have to attack him. You still have to be aggressive with them. Whether that’s getting them foul trouble. Whether it’s getting them out of position so Big Nurk [Jusuf Nurkić] can get rebounds. But our biggest thing is getting [Gobert] away from the basket, making him use his feet. We have excellent guys who can put the ball on the floor. We shoot lights out from 3. So, we really try to make it difficult on teams that want to play with that type of size. We want to try to make it difficult on them and keep him in rotations, getting him to do things that he’s not used to doing.

The fan base in Minnesota is awesome. You could barely hear yourself. And the way that the arena is set up, it’s like they’re just packed. It’s like a pack of wolves. They’re just right on top of you, staring down at you. And it is a fun arena to be in. Love the upgrades and the renovations they’ve done. And it is true sports city. They love all their sports there. But to see the Timberwolves back into contention, that just brought the fans right back out and I’m happy to see that. It’s good for hoops.

Being 3-0 against Minnesota means absolutely nothing. Obviously, the regular season has weight, but you kind of eliminate [it] going into the postseason. We really feel like they haven’t played their best game against us. We feel like they still have a lot of talent. We still feel like they can be more aggressive and we know that they will be. This last game was KAT’s [Karl-Anthony Towns] first game back in a long time. So, I know they’re just getting used to getting him back out there on the floor, too. We don’t look past them at all.

We understand that every game is going to be tough. Ant Man is beyond superstar. KAT is a superstar. Rudy is an All-Defensive player every year. So, they have the pieces. Naz Reid can shoot it. Mike Conley is a true vet PG [point guard]. Jaden [McDaniels] is an awesome defender. So, we have our work cut out. We got to make sure we’re locked-in, because it won’t be easy.

Guarding Ant Man, it’s a tough task. It’s not easy to be able to accept that challenge. He never stops. He doesn’t care who it is, who’s guarding him, who’s in front of him. If it’s me, if it’s Book, if it’s K, it’s JO [Josh Okogie], one of our best defenders, it doesn’t matter. [Edwards is] in attack mode at all times. We’ve seen his highlight real dunks that he can do in half court and in transition. He’s superspecial. I try to make it as tough on him as possible, make him work for every single shot, make him work for every single move that he does and just make him uncomfortable. He doesn’t care if you foul. He don’t care if you are aggressive. He’s strong. He accepts all challenges, man. So, it is very rare to see a young player of his caliber with the mindset he has and the game. But mentally, he’s one of those guys. He’s one of the ones.

I’ve always been a fan of him since he was younger, but to be a part of and see it up close now and compete against him, it is night and day. Not even comparable. The sky’s the limit for him. He’s definitely going to be up there with one of the greats, man. One of the hardest guys ever to have to guard. The rest is up to him, but he’s there.

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My body feels really good. It’s probably the best I’ve felt in a long time. It’s good to just have my legs. I don’t need my wind back and I just have a good flow, a good feel of how we’re going to play as a team. I’m happy that I’m feeling my best at this time of the year, too. I’m not too banged up going into the playoffs.

I know the outside world has their expectations and compares whose duo is better, whose big three is better. We don’t even get caught up in that. We just go out and hoop. We can control what we can control. We let our game speak for itself and to try to win a ring. We’re all out here trying to compete for the same thing. We’re all beyond talented. We know everybody’s going to be opinionated and have a voice, but we blocked it out.

Everybody’s been on the ‘It’s time’ wave. In that moment, I just didn’t know what else to say. I was just in such a zone of being locked-in and just being excited. It’s been three years since I’ve been in the playoffs. So, I was just excited about that coming to fruition again. We had to beat a tough Sacramento team to even keep that hope alive for us. So, it was just an exciting moment, man. Just, it’s nothing else to say, but I guess it’s time. It’s time to lock-in and do everything that we said that we would do at the beginning of the year.

The George Floyd Memorial it’s something that I would probably have been interested in doing while we’re there [in Minneapolis]. You never wish death or wish any event upon anybody, but that sparked a time change in our world. And it began to bring a lot of light to a lot of police brutalities and unfair justices that happened throughout the country. Granted, a lot of those things have happened before, but now that we have social media, we have all these huge platforms now to where those things can’t just slide by anymore. We can’t just get away with those things anymore. We have to hold everybody accountable. That definitely sparked a unique transition in time in our world, which was necessary.

I try to keep the same approach that I have in the regular season as I do in the postseason. Obviously, I’m more probably locked-in. So, I’m probably a little bit more hunker down. Probably turn the phone off a little bit more. But at the same time, you want to keep it fun. You want to keep it light because every game is so heightened whether it’s you win or lose. You feel great when you win and you feel like crap and then you lose. So, it’s being able to have that balance off the floor, too. It’s still basketball. It’s still one of the best games that was ever invented. I have the best job in the world. Just enjoy the moment. Enjoy the process of it. Enjoy the highs. Enjoy the lows of it and understand the story is written.

I’ll go to the dinners. I’ll go eat in a hotel. It’s kind of more or less about the mood I’m in and how my body is feeling. If I have family in town. Those things all kind of play a factor into what I’m doing on the road. This is the first time I’ve ever been in Minneapolis where it’s been warm and hot outside. And I’m actually loving it because it’s a beautiful city. The people are nice. But I’ve always been there when it was freezing cold and nobody wants to talk to you and nobody wants to be around you. So, I’m definitely getting a different perspective on Minnesota in itself. I’m excited to be there for the playoffs and hopefully learn a little bit more, get out a little bit more, get some good food spots.

B.G. [Blake Griffin], I’m proud of you man. I’m happy for you. Congratulations on retirement. You are a pinnacle in this league of elite, young athletic wings. You definitely changed the game with the way you approach being one of the first that was played at the four, but being a small-ball power forward, that could play the 3, shoot the 3, handle the ball. He was one of the first to be able to do that and do it at a high level. He is a true fan favorite. The youth loved him. Played above the rim. Had an awesome career, man. I’m beyond happy for you both, the Jordan Brand family, too. So, I’m excited for your future ahead, brother.

I don’t even know if I could put it into words. The Western Conference, playoffs? Gauntlet, gulag for my video game players. Yeah, that’s what this is. The West? You can’t run from anybody. You can’t duck any smoke. That’s one thing I always tell my friends. It’s like, ‘Who do you want to play in the playoffs?’ It doesn’t matter. It’s going to be competitive. It’s going to be a tough challenge. You can’t run from anybody. You got to go through the best to beat the best and to be the best. You got to go through all those channels. Go through all those teams. If that’s what you want to do at the end of the year to hold that Larry [O’Brien NBA Championship Trophy] up, you got to hoop and hoop against the best.