The Phoenix Suns arguably have the best offensive trio in the NBA featuring Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, and Bradley Beal. Points won't be hard to come by for the Suns with three stars who are capable of dropping at least 25 points on any given night. Heck, all three could even simultaneously pop off for 30 points apiece for multiple games throughout the season. However, despite Phoenix's sky-high offensive ceiling, the Suns still need to address some issues — and it is still evident during the preseason.

Durant, Booker, and Beal finally played their first game together when they took on the Detroit Pistons this past Sunday. If the Big Three's debut is any indication of what is to come, the league should be in for nightmares in trying to defend that trio. In one half of basketball together, KD, Book, and Beal combined for 35 points on 12-of-21 shooting. They played seamlessly off each other with no indication of “me” or “hero” ball in sight. All three played selfless basketball that involved tons of off-ball movement and extra passes that generated better shot opportunities for everyone.

While Phoenix's spanking new offense looked fly, its play on the other end of the floor still needs some work. As such, the Suns' early concern from the 2023-24 preseason is their defense.

Suns early concern in the preseason: Defense

Despite dropping 130 points in their preseason opener, the Suns gave up 126 points to the Detroit Pistons. They even let Detroit come back from a 26-point deficit to force overtime before they took the four-point victory in the extra session.

A couple of days later, despite not having Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, and Bradley Beal, the Suns gave up 115 points to the defending champion Denver Nuggets.

In two preseason outings so far, Phoenix has a 113.1 defensive rating, which ranks 25th in the entire league. Sure, it's just preseason and the Big Three did not play in one of the games.

But defense is still a concern to at least keep an eye before the regular season begins. Phoenix actually has the personnel to become a solid defensive unit, save for perhaps an imposing defensive presence at the rim.

Interior defense may be a season-long problem

Their starting center Jusuf Nurkic isn't particularly a rim protector, so he won't deter a lot of shots at the rim. He's averaged less than a block over the last two seasons.

Kevin Durant may be Phoenix's best shot blocker. However, he functions most as a help defender who either rotates to the perimeter or helps when the ball gets in the lane. As such, most of his swats come from weakside help defense.

Bol Bol could be a solid shot blocking threat because of his length and size alone, but his lanky frame could get him pushed around under the basket.

Drew Eubanks showed solid shot blocking prowess last season for the Portland Trail Blazers, as he averaged 1.3 blocks in over 20 minutes per game. But he'll be just serving a reserve role for the most part for this Suns team.

The Suns will have less problems in terms of perimeter defense as they brought in plenty of long-limbed wings to complement their offensive-minded perimeter trio. But most of them won't be on the floor when the game is going down the wire in the fourth quarter.

Josh Okogie should be the team's main point-of-attack defender and should get the toughest perimeter assignments on most nights. He could get the fifth starting spot with Durant, Booker, Beal, and Nurkic. In fact, that was Frank Vogel's exact starting unit when the Suns took on the Pistons for their season opener.

It will be interesting to see just how this Suns team will gel on the defensive side of the floor. Offense should remain their bread-and-butter. But if they want to achieve their goal of winning a championship, they must be a great defensive team as well.