PHOENIX — The Phoenix Suns held an open practice at Footprint Center Sunday in front of 16,000 fans.

They got to see Devin Booker, Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal at home for the first time before all three are expected to play in a home game Monday in the preseason against the Portland Trail Blazers.

Here are observations from the practice.

Pre-practice

The Suns have a lot of fans who are expecting them to break through and do something that has only been done once before in major Arizona sports history: win a championship.

Phoenix advanced to the 2021 NBA Finals and lost. One season later, it had the best regular-season record in the NBA but was blown out at home in Game 7 of the Western Conference semifinals.

The Suns traded for Durant in February and were favored to win the Western Conference by major betting sides. Phoenix took the defending NBA champion Denver Nuggets to six games and suffered injuries to two starters, Chris Paul and Deandre Ayton.

This summer, Phoenix dismissed prior coach Monty Williams and hired Frank Vogel, who coached LeBron James and Anthony Davis with the Los Angeles Lakers and won the 2020 NBA championship. Vogel is seen to be a coach who is better with adjustments, something that Williams struggled with in each of the last three playoffs.

The Suns only have three players returning from their 2022-23 roster who played significant minutes: Booker; Durant; and guard Damion Lee. Phoenix has a new starting center, Jusuf Nurkic, and revamped depth fans got to greet before practice.

Forward Yuta Watanabe, who played last season with the Brooklyn Nets with Durant and later former Suns Mikal Bridges and Cameron Johnson, is a fan favorite. He has a lot of backing as one of two Japanese-born players currently in the NBA and one of three players ever from Japan to play in the best professional basketball league. He shot 3-pointers before the session and came out later to sign autographs for fans. At one point, he asked a security guard to bring out a younger fan so he could sign a cast. 

Okogie also signed autographs. He told reporters this past week he did not add any tweaks to his jump shot, but it looks much smoother. Okogie’s shoulders are loose and it’s possible the additional reps he harped on make him a lot more comfortable with his release, which has a fluid follow-through.

Bol Bol, who is the son of NBA legend Manute Bol, is someone the fans love. ClutchPoints posted a video of Bol from media day in which he was asked if he should be labeled a guard or a big. He hilariously shrugged his shoulders, smiled and said, “I don’t know,” which has grown into a popular meme on Suns Twitter (or X now).

Devin Booker was the last player to come out before practice and he knows he’s the guy in Phoenix. I couldn’t get a good video of him but he wore black sweats, a shirt and headband, which Arizona Sports’ Kellan Olson asked him about in Saturday’s practice. Booker joked he’s “finding himself.” Beal might have an influence on that.

Practice

The Suns started practice with stretching before they broke out into a three-on-zero drill. A player initiated the drill and the middle, and I thought it was going to be a three-man weave. But it looked like something that got the players loose.

Immediately, fans got to see how often Devin Booker and Kevin Durant are talking to each other. I saw them chatting in between the drill (check on X and you’ll see Booker rocking his Book 1 shoes and Durant wearing the “Aunt Pearl” color way for his KD 16s). 

Booker and Durant were talking a lot during subsequent drills. I saw them chat near the scorer’s table and for some reason, Durant hit the griddy. That was funny. Some fans wanted to see Booker dance but I don’t think that’s in his wheelhouse.

Some of the most important parts of practice were the Suns’ five-on-zero offensive drills and shell defensive rotations. Phoenix was going about 25 percent in speed so it was hard to see who’s impressing. But Bradley Beal, Booker and Durant were competing which is encouraging.

Phoenix’s offense has been exceptional with the big three on the floor. The Suns last playoffs wanted to stay within their principles from the last few seasons with Williams, but they need to put focus on putting their stars and role players in the best positions to succeed. Williams had some scheme restrictions that emphasized team basketball and opening scoring opportunities for Booker and Paul. Now that they have Durant and Beal, there are ways to make things work that don’t have to be confined to set principles.

Booker, Beal and Durant are three of the best scorers in the NBA. The set the Suns showed in a five-on-zero offense involved a screen set for Booker that freed him to the perimeter. Beal then played pick-and-roll with Nurkic and flashed to the right corner with Durant in the left. There are so many options the Suns have from a simple set. Booker can isolate, create his own shot or play a guard-to-guard screen action with Beal or with Durant, which is just unfair. Nurkic might even have a chance to post up a smaller guy. He’s 290 pounds, so he’s going to win a lot of matchups with his size.

The Suns can also play easy and drive-and-kick to Beal and Durant. So many weapons.

Injury update

The Suns will not have backup guard Eric Gordon Monday against the Trail Blazers due to hip tightness, Vogel said after practice. Backup big Drew Eubanks will return for Monday’s game after he missed Thursday’s game on the road against Portland with an ankle sprain.

Vogel said he will determine tomorrow if he will rest specific players. Okogie and backup guard Grayson Allen did not play Thursday against the Trail Blazers. Okogie has seemingly solidified himself as the Suns’ fifth starter.

Noteworthy observations

The Suns had two-way center Udoka Azubuike in one of their five-on-zero segments at practice. Azubuike is big like Nurkic so it’s possible the Suns just wanted to rehearse a set with a body like him.

Bol, although a fan favorite, is not someone expected to be a regular part of the rotation in important minutes. He was with the third-team offense in what looked like a red scout penny along with Saben Lee, Keon Johnson, Nassir Little and others.

Press conference

Durant was traded to Phoenix only eight months ago but has a feel of the excitement the city has around the Suns.

Durant was a part of an in-arena press conference in which fans screamed every time he gave an answer. He spoke after the open practice about the environment Sunday.

“It’s still incredible,” Durant said. “…How excited they are for the game of basketball inspires me and keeps me going.”