Bucks’ Jared Dudley: Phoenix Suns’ three-point-guard lineup would work in the East

The Phoenix Suns’ three-point-lineup has served as a litmus test for all of basketball.

If it works, you may see teams in all levels of the sport adopt the method.

If it doesn’t, such lineups could get laughed out of the league, never to be taken seriously again.

So far, the results have been mixed when head coach Jeff Hornacek sends out Goran Dragic, Eric Bledsoe and Isaiah Thomas at the same time.

Phoenix is four games above .500 entering the All-Star break, but is well behind its 48-win pace from a season ago.

At 29-25, the Suns hold just a half-game lead over the formidable Oklahoma City Thunder for the eighth spot in the Western Conference Playoffs.

Given the Suns’ record, it’s a stretch to say Phoenix is flourishing with three high-scoring point guards, but former Suns swingman Jared Dudley said the early results might just say more about where the team is placed.

“Can the three-point-guard set work in the Western Conference?” Dudley asked rhetorically while talking to Burns and Gambo on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM Thursday. “If they were in the East, it would work. But that West out there, there’s too many bigs in that. (The PG-heavy lineup) is fun … it’s exciting. But that West is a different beast out there.”

If the Suns were in the East and had the same record, they would comfortably be in seventh place at the moment. Instead, they’re one of 10 teams in the West boasting a record of better than .500, while only six clubs in the East can say the same.

Dudley, who’s in his first season with the Milwaukee Bucks, said he believes the reason Phoenix isn’t taking off as expected this year is because Goran Dragic doesn’t have the ball in his hands as often.

“He’s sacrificed the most out of any player in the NBA that I’ve seen in a while — playing the two-guard position,” Dudley said. “Even though he is a combo guard, but he’s playing strictly two. He’s never a one, rarely.”

The eight-year veteran called Dragic a “fan favorite” and said he sees the reigning Most Improved Player coming back to Phoenix next year, despite current trade rumors and the Slovenian guard’s ability to opt out of his contract at the end of the season.

“This guy was almost an All-Star last year, and he was young. He’s coming into his prime,” Dudley said of his former teammate. “So for him it’s very unique — where Bledsoe got hurt [last season] and he took his game to a whole another level, like even I bet you people in the organization were like, ‘Wow, I didn’t know Goran had that!”

Dudley’s team, meanwhile, is quite reminiscent of last year’s Suns, which improved by 23 wins year-over-year. The Bucks were a league-worst 15-67 last season, but they head into this year’s All-Star break with a 30-23 record. They are the first club in NBA history to double their previous win total before the All-Star Game.

“I enjoyed it from the beginning of the year,” the 6-foot-7 swingman said. “At the beginning of the year, Coach (Jason) Kidd basically said, ‘Hey, I’m playing everyone. Everyone on this team is going to play.’ And he literally did that.

“And we’re still there. We play hard, we’re unselfish and every game’s close.”

Dudley, who was traded from Phoenix after the 2012-13 season, had plenty of compliments for Kidd, another former Sun, who is just two seasons removed from his NBA playing career.

“Some people, when you have a young team, they want to practice two hours; they want to drag you into the dirt, and they’re old school,” Dudley said. “(Kidd) knows that’s not how it is in this day and age. It’s about rest, it’s about having a body and it’s about confidence. I like that from a player (to) ex-player standpoint.

“And his communication skills are perfect. He communicates with everyone. He’s not going to sugarcoat anything. He’s honest with you in the film room, and you can respect that.”