The Bradley Beal era in Washington is finally over as the Wizards sent the 3-time All-Star, the 4yrs/$208 million left on his contract, and his no trade clause, along with Jordan Goodwin and Isaiah Todd, to the Phoenix Suns for Chris Paul, Landry Shamet, a “handful’ of second round picks, and 2 pick swaps. That, of course, is a low price for Beal who averaged 23.2 points, 5.4 assists, and 3.9 rebounds in 50 games for the Wizards last season. However, the contract and the right to veto any trade made it really hard for Washington to get much of anything back for Beal and they wanted to move the contract so here we are.
Let’s start with the Wizards keeping Beal for as long as they did. I first mentioned them trading Beal in 2018 on my fake trades Instagram account. The first blog I wrote was about a Beal trade to the Pelicans back in January 2021, in July of that same year, I wrote a blog titled “The Bradley Beal Wizards era is on thin ice.” This was a trade that Washington needed to make a long time ago and yet here we are after giving Beal the super-max and a no trade clause, they decide to move him when they had no leverage. They could have had the picks, swaps, and players but here we are after holding out for too long and for what because the player didn’t ask out, so you could keep a positive relationship? It never made any sense to keep him for as long as the Wizards did and they got burned for it.
Next, I want to break down the return because for as little as it seems, it is probably less. Chris Paul will, in all likelihood, be waived or traded and will not play for Washington and the 2 pick swaps are for 2024 (next year) and 2026. The 2024 swap will not convey because the Suns will be better than Washington next season, unless something catastrophic happens in Phoenix or the Monte Morris-Landry Shamet backcourt is more prolific than we realize and Devin Booker will likely still be in Phoenix in 2026. So this trade is probably just Shamet and 2nd round picks for Beal, though you never know about 2026 because crazier things have happened. The point is the Wizards blew it when they didn’t trade Beal awhile ago… but they didn’t so how do they go forward from here?
New Wizards President of Basketball Operations Michael Winger took over knowing he had to move Beal and he was not going to get enough back. I am not blaming this Wizards front office for this. However, Winger knew he had to trade Beal because the team needed a reset and he did. What does it leave the Wizards left? They have the 8th pick in the draft, which they need to get right because Rui Hachimura, Deni Advija, and Johnny Davis all have not hit being around that 8th pick range and they need an impact player on this roster so badly. Then they have to answer the Kyle Kuzma and Kristaps Porzingis questions. Kuzma feels easy, he will opt-out and likely walk as a free agent. Porzingis is not as simple. When Tommy Sheppard was in charge, it was widely expected Porzingis would opt-out and sign a new deal with the Wizards. With Winger in charge, it is not expected Washington would sign Porzingis long term leading to him opting into his $36 million player option and a trade. They also have Daniel Gafford and as a member of the Daniel Gafford fan club, I am forced to mention that he is a good player and can be Washington’s starting center for the future. The rest of the roster is meh. Monte Morris and Delon Wright are the point guard platoon and neither player really sticks out to you when watching them. They do not have any young players that stick out as neither Corey Kispert, though an elite shooter, or Deni Advija have done anything to make you think that those players are key pieces going forward and Johnny Davis had a disastrous rookie season. Chris Haynes reported that they might trade Paul to the Clippers but that return won’t net them a ton of future players, if any at all. They might just re-sign Kuzma to a short term, big money deal just to have some kind of players.
The Suns are trying to replicate what the Nets did when they had Kevin Durant… which is interesting because the Nets won one playoff series with Durant, James Harden, and Kyrie Irving. However, people forget just how good Brooklyn was when those 3 were on the court together, they were championship good. That is what the Suns are trying to replicate here. The first move they should make is to split Deandre Ayton’s contract up into 2 or 3 players. Ayton is good but Phoenix needs players, wings specifically. The Mavericks need a center, so Ayton for Tim Hardaway Jr., Reggie Bullock, and JaVale McGee works for both sides. Maybe the Bulls lose Nikola Vucevic and decide they need a center. There will be suitors for Ayton. The rest of the roster will need to be filled out with minimum players since the new CBA does not allow teams like the Suns to use their tax mid level exception. It will not be easy to fill out this roster but this is a trade that would have been silly for the Suns not to make, that is how good a Booker/Beal/Durant trio can be.
In order for us to be sure what Beal’s role on Phoenix will be we have to see the rest of the roster and watch some games to see how it fits. However, I can tell you that sacrifices will need to be made by Beal. His usage percentage has not been under 26.5% since the 2015-16 season so there will be an adjustment period there. He also needs to be a better 3 point shooter as he has only been over 36% once since 2018-19 and a lot of his role in Phoenix is going to depend on him making 3 pointers. He has also only played in 90 of a possible 164 games over the last 2 seasons so health is something that he needs to improve on due to Kevin Durant missing big chunks of games every year. One of the interesting parts of this trade is that both Beal and Devin Booker are both more so 2 guards than point guards. As a result, we will be getting more, a lot more, of ‘Point Book’ this season which will be interesting to see how Booker handles that change and how much Beal becomes the lead ball handler during the course of a game.
There is a ton of pressure on Bradley Beal to not only figure out how to play with Booker and Durant but to be great. If Beal is not awesome in his new role, the Suns have no shot at winning the Western Conference, where the past 2 champions are waiting for them. The offseason has barely started so it is hard to judge just where Phoenix stacks up but I do think this makes them better, probably much better. I understand the no bench argument but they had no bench last season so this trade did not hurt that. There is a reasonable thought that the Suns will be the favorites in the West next season, pending of course on how the remainder of this offseason goes. Denver is going to be back in the mix after their championship, you have to assume Golden State is in the mix as long as 30 is there, the Lakers are coming off a Western Conference Final appearance, and maybe, probably not, the Clippers will get healthy. This is not going to be easy for the Suns.
This trio of Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, and Bradley Beal has a chance to be as prolific as the Brooklyn Big 3 was, and had Kyrie and Harden stayed healthy in 2021, that Nets team had as good a chance as anyone to win the championship. I believe that this Suns team can be that good, which is why I would split Ayton’s contract up into 2 or 3 players to give me more perimeter defense and shooting. The new CBA is going to give the Suns a lot of roster building problems going forward with how much they are paying for this trio but new owner Mat Ishbia feels that it is worth it because that is how good these 3 guys can be.
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