In recent months, most of the star players who were expected to be traded during the NBA’s 2020/21 league year – either during the offseason or in-season – were indeed on the move. Chris Paul and Jrue Holiday were dealt early, followed a couple weeks later by Russell Westbrook and John Wall. Last week, James Harden and Victor Oladipo landed with new NBA teams.
After catching their breath following a flurry of blockbuster trades, fans and pundits figure to eventually ask the inevitable question: Who’s next?
After all, while we get the occasional lull between mega-deals, it’s always just a matter of time before another big-name player on an underachieving team hits the trade block, either because he wants to be moved or because his team recognizes it’s better off cashing in one of its top trade chips sooner rather than later.
While this year’s trade deadline is still over two months away, it’s worth considering which player might be the next one to fit that bill. There are a few contenders around the NBA, but at this point, no star player appear to be a likelier trade candidate than Bradley Beal.
The most important factor working against a Beal trade is the fact that the Wizards have repeatedly indicated – both privately and publicly – that they have no interest in moving the star guard. When they sent Wall and a first-round pick to Houston for Westbrook, the Wizards made the deal in the hopes of returning to the postseason and convincing Beal that the franchise was working its way back toward contention. Washington wants to build around Beal, not trade him.
But there are a number of factors working against the Wizards. For one, the club got off to a poor start this season, opening with a 3-8 record before having six consecutive games postponed due to the NBA’s COVID-19 protocols.
When the Wizards resume play – likely on Sunday – they’ll be looking to climb out of that early hole with a shorthanded roster, knowing they’ll have to cram a ton of makeup games into their schedule later in their season if they want to get close to playing a full 72-game slate.
A playoff spot is certainly possible, especially with the play-in format opening things up to the Nos. 9 and 10 seeds, but it will be an uphill battle. And it seems unlikely that Washington would make any real noise in the postseason against a higher-seeded opponent.
Beal’s contract situation isn’t ideal for the Wizards either. Although he did sign an extension with the team in 2019, that deal essentially only tacked on one guaranteed year to his previous contract, meaning he’ll still be able to reach the open market in 2022. That doesn’t give the Wizards a ton of time to turn things around.
It’s a safe bet that teams around the NBA will blowing up GM Tommy Sheppard‘s phone between now and the March 25 deadline to see whether Beal is available. With Harden off the market, Beal is the most appealing star who could realistically be on the block. The Heat, whose strong interest in Beal has been stated repeatedly over the last year, would be at the front of the line, but they’d have plenty of competition for a player who would be a strong fit in virtually any and every system.
Beal has spent his entire career in D.C., has talked about his loyalty to the city and to the franchise, and has backed up his words with actions, as his 2019 extension showed. But he has also made it clear that he wants to win a championship. If the Wizards, whose win total has declined each year since 2016/17, don’t start trending in the right direction, it’s hard to imagine him recommitting to the franchise when his current contract expires (right around the time he turns 29).
With all that in mind, we want to know what you think. Will the Beal trade rumors heat up in the next couple months? Will the Wizards have to start seriously considering moving him? Or do you expect the All-Star guard to remain in Washington for the foreseeable future?
Vote below in our poll, then head to the comment section to weigh in with your thoughts!
Trade Rumors app users, click here to vote.
They need to trade either Beal or Westbrook. Keeping Beal makes more sense.
What do you think the value on Westbrook is right now? I am sure they would prefer to keep Beal
Is Westbrook the current or next Carmelo? (Can put up numbers but never be part of the lead of a championship team.)
Sixers will trade for him
While keeping simmons no doubt. A big 3 of simmons, beal and embiid looks pretty tantalizing. Some form of harris plus 2/3 firsts
Nah wizards under no circumstances will trade Beal for a deal headed by tobias Harris , nobody is trading anything good for Harris
Harris? Why in the world would Washington want Harris? He is still owed like 115 million.
Gotta match salaries, unless you want to include Danny green and others which hurt depth. Harris isn’t playing as bad as people like to theorize. Simmons is the worst player on sixers right now
Harris and a couple of firsts is awful though. Phillys picks are going to be late first round. Washington could do much better elsewhere.
He’s looking at it only from the sixers point of view and not how it sucks for the wizards ! Harris is gonna be one of the top 15 Paid players in all the nba during his contract and of course he’s not even close to a top 25 player let alone 15
It’s true, without dealing Simmons, the Sixers have a slim chance outside of a 3 or 4 team deal.
There’s still dudes on the street that can provide the same level of depth as a Mike Scott, Tony Bradley, etc…
So I still think something along the lines of a LaVine, Oladipo, type of contract and player has more legs than Beal. Too many better offers to beat.
Beal to the Heat or the Nuggets. Those teams make a lot of sense.
Because of the contract situation and writing on the wall it’d probably be smart to move him and get what they can, though a superstar you want to build around is hard to come by, and means they’d sit in the basement rebuilding for who knows how long.
Avoid a Harden situation. Even if Houston got a decent return it was ugly. Can’t see Beal staying happy much longer, and by the time everyone is healthy and on the same page it will be too late. That’s my opinion, you will take it or leave it.
Beal is close enough to the point he can control heading to the heat if that’s what he wants
So 1 year of Jrue got 2 1sts and 2 swaps, and a serviceable starting PG.
2 years of Harden got 4 1sts and 3 swaps and a former AS combo guard.
So 1.5 years of Beal…probably 3 1sts, 2 or 3 swaps, and a decent player.
I’d say Heat, bc the wouldn’t have to give up every young player. But Herro would be the headline, and the some salary filler.
Sixers would have to find someone to take Harris, OR take a bunch of expiring contracts and provide some kind of value in return to dump someone like adding a 1st to get out of a contract… would work out with a Blake Griffin trade. That and every available future 1st from the Sixers.
I like Miamis odds to land him.
Yeah Harris has negative trade value ! Good player but he’s due to be a top 10 paid player the next 4 years counting this one and he’s not even a all star candidate let alone all nba ! Sixers will just have to ride that contract out till it’s expiring
Currently, yes he projects to be Top-10 paid in the last 2 years of his contract, but theres other guys that will get paid and bump him back into the 15 range (Jrue, Kawhi, Harden, Curry, Durant to name a few). Hes going to put up Middleton like numbers tho if he continues to hit shots, so to the Sixers he valuable, the contract is a hard sell elsewhere.
Most likely they do have to ride it out.
The Wiz don’t follow NBA protocol when the subject matter is rebuilding or even retooling. In their minds, they’re always reloading (even when their record said they were shooting blanks). It’s been the case through FO and ownership changes.
So, when the Wiz said they wouldn’t take calls on Bertans last year, I believed them. And when they say they won’t trade Beal, I believe them. When is the last time this franchise traded a star player for future assets? Unless and until Beal demands a trade, I don’t think they’ll even discuss him.
According to poll
Most people think Giannis will not resign with Bucks
and Bucks will let him walk for nothing
The way Wash is trending. They could be moving Westbrook and Beal. At best they are a bottom seed this yr. Both players have 2yrs after this one. So they could go all in on a rebuild. Beal is the player they will get the most for. So it makes sense moving him. Wiz could clean house and move Bertans too. If they keep losing Beal will draw plenty of attention. So yeah I think he could be next big trade.
Looks like knicks will be getting there star in westbrook, he won’t help them win very much so they could get some lottery talent while putting on a show! Empty stats and stat padder
Dude, the Knicks aren’t getting Westbrook. What are you on about?
WAS would be fools to trade Beal, ain’t gonna happen!
Beal has made a rep for loyalty, let’s hope he doesn’t screw himself big time by requesting a trade, he should be a one team-man, as simple as!
Hence no story, he ain’t gonna nowhere, that’s all folks!
Kendrick Nunn/Tyler Herro, Kelly Olynyk, Andre Iguodala, KZ Okpala, and potentially their 1-2 draft picks they can move
for Beal, Isaac Bonga, Troy Brown jr, and Moritz Wagner
If after February 6, that would give the Heat more options, potentially to include Avery Bradley and Meyers Leonard instead of Iguodala, but if the Heat were to make a deal for Beal, I would assume it would have to look somewhat like this to get it done financially
The 4 main teams I could see being in on him are the Heat, Denver, Memphis, and OKC. Obviously, there are other teams that could get involved, but it’s hard to say for sure what a package would look like during the season
Wiz givng to much up take out Bonga or Brown. Decent trade tho
Denver seems like the team most likely to trade for Beal.
Miami could pull it off, but they’d have to grenade their roster (no big contracts to ship out) AND give up two good young players (Herro and Robinson) to make it work. They also have no draft picks to trade.
Golden State could pull it off with Wiseman and Wiggins, but that seems like a lateral move for them at best. Wiggins seems like he should be OK, and Wiseman seems like he should be awesome, and Klay is coming back.
Philly and Dallas would love to add Beal, but have no hot young talent to trade, and can only offer late 1sts. Still, they are in the mix.
Which brings us to Denver – Porter Jr. + Harris + a slew of picks is about as good a deal as the Bullets will get. The only question is how many picks will Denver risk? Beal isn’t a lock to re-sign.
I really thought Denver was going to move for him last year before the season, before people realized Gary Harris was declining, and while they still had Beasley. I doubt they would move Porter in a deal. It would likely be more like Gary Harris, Barton, Nnaji, RJ Hampton, and multiple picks for Beal, Bonga, and Brown jr
Philly could theoretically do it, but it would take a big roster turnover to match salaries, and they probably have to include at least an extra asset for Washington to take on Tobias Harris, although theoretically they could potentially do some sort of 3 team deal to accommodate that. It would be something like Harris, Shake Milton, thybulle, isaiah joe, terrance ferguson, Poirier, and a couple of picks for Beal, Bonga, Brown jr, Ish Smith, and Moritz Wagner
That would be an amazing deal for GS lol. No way that would happen
Beal to the Sixers for 1-2 firsts, Danny Green, Maxey, and Curry. Unless Harris is in the deal it’s basically the only way to make the money work while getting young talent in Maxey. Don’t know if the Sixers feel that leaves them enough talent on the bench but I think Beal makes them the best team in the East