Paul Coro

The Republic | azcentral.com

The Suns got an answer with Devin Booker’s brilliant rookie season, which brings a new question.

How do three “scoring point guards,” as Suns interim head coach Earl Watson calls them, work together next season if Eric Bledsoe, Brandon Knight and Booker are on the roster and healthy.

“You kind of glimpse at it and you think of creative ways,” Watson said, now that Booker has 36 starts. “It’s really unique. Bledsoe is a unique player in his own. All three are special. The thing that I like best is, between Knight and Bledsoe, that they embrace Booker. That’s interesting because they realize, not only are they going to give up handling the ball – which, don’t ever take (the ball from) a point guard. It’s immediate disrespect. They accept giving up handling the ball and they embrace Booker creating for them and they create for Booker.”

The Suns have toyed with a similar scenario at the start of last season but Booker’s size, which will only fill out at 6 feet 6, brings a different element to the group. Since NBA Summer League, the Suns put Booker in pick-and-roll situations because of his ability to see over a defense and his acumen for the game even as the NBA’s youngest player.

RELATED: Knight, Booker flip roles in Suns backcourt

Bledsoe was shooting 37.2 percent from 3-point range this season before he had season-ending knee surgery. Like previous coach Jeff Hornacek, Watson envisions an offense with quick swings and secondary pick-and-rolls to challenge defenses’ choices on which scorer/playmaker to defend.

With Booker’s and center Alex Len’s emergence, Watson listed five player who are capable of 30-point scoring games in addition to Bledsoe, Knight and injured small forward T.J. Warren.

“We enhanced bench production without a trade,” Watson said.

“How many teams can say they did that without paying a guy to come in? So when you go into free agency, you have six guys who can give you 30 at any time. The creativity is how do you build around it? As a full program, we can throw a lot of things on the board and we don’t have to say, ‘We need to bring in a scoring player,’ that’s going to command most of our money in free agency. Now we can be really crafty.”

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He said that includes deciding between creating a bench unit that is defensively oriented or piles on more scoring.

The undecided part is which guard of the trio, if any, would come off the bench. Booker might have changed that vision after he became a top offensive option with four 30-point games, the team’s most popular player and such a strong ball-handler and passer that he could have an 11-assist, zero-turnover game against Golden State on Saturday.

Watson said Booker’s ability to average six assists over the previous six games entering Monday night is a testament to how he can read the second layers of a defense.

“It’s like a fluid puzzle,” Watsons said. “He’s reading the puzzle very well. And what makes him most dangerous is that he can shoot. So now he really is the maestro of music. He controls the entire movement of the offense and defense.”

RELATED: Len's stats among top NBA centers

Changing defense

Starting with Saturday night’s game at Golden State, the Suns simplified their defense to emphasize their two starting 7-footers’ ability to protect the basket rather than rotating players and to reduce opponents’ corner 3-point attempts.

“Our goal is to continue to become an aggressive defensive team on the ball. Be physical. Be aggressive,” Watson said. “It’s going to take some time to earn that respect and for the entire NBA to know that’s our style of play.

“Most teams usually get that reputation out of training camp. They go through preseason and you’re like, ‘This is their style of play.’ "

Reach Paul Coro atpaul.coro@arizonarepublic.com or (602) 444-2470. Follow him at www.twitter.com/paulcoro.