Bradley Beal will decline his $36.4MM player option in order to become an unrestricted free agent, Michael Scotto of Hoops Hype reports via a source.
It’s long been anticipated that Beal would decline the option and sign a long-term deal. He indicated in both March and May that he was leaning toward re-signing with the Wizards.
Beal, who missed the final 33 games of the season because of an injured left wrist, is eligible for a new five-year contract with the Wizards worth a projected $247MM+. The most a rival team could offer him in free agency would be a projected $183.6MM over four years.
Beal offered a cryptic reply to the report on Twitter, stating “Wait huh? Lol.”
He said the recovery process from the wrist injury is going well and estimates that 80-90% of his range of motion has returned. He averaged 23.2 PPG, 6.6 APG, and 4.7 RPG across 40 contests, on .451/.300/.833 shooting.
Beal has been the subject of trade rumors for years but has so far remained loyal to Washington. Presuming he re-signs with the Wizards, he’ll get a chance to play a full season with midseason acquisition Kristaps Porzingis. Beal’s backcourt partner for next season remains a mystery — Washington is expected to clear its logjam at the forward spots and seek to improve its backcourt situation. The team also holds a lottery pick at the No. 10 spot.
It’s your turn, Lakers
Lakers need to dump salary as early as possible
Beal and Irvin are free. Lakers don’t need to attach future Firsts.
Hurry up, Lakers
All of those future firsts would be gone dumping said salary. Not that Beal or anyone else is going to sacrifice 50+ million to sign elsewhere outright.
They don’t have any dumpable salary except AD and LeBron. Even if they dumped Westbrook they wouldn’t have near enough space to sign Beal.
So dumping 47 mill won’t be enough ♂️
Washington players don’t want westbrook back.
Speaking of DUMPS why would he want to go to LA and play for the worst GM/Player ever? Add in a fragile center who can’t be healthy and no depth I would say he would take a hard pass.
Probably because the world outright forgets that his current team even exists, and it’s hard to sale jerseys when literally no one talks about you.
If you’re over the cap and dump 47 million without a direct sign and trade, then you can’t only use the money under the cap to sign a new player.
Miami could sure use him.
New York, New York
Him declining his option makes it LESS likely he’ll be on a team other than the Wiz next year, not more. Read the freakin article. He was tradeable on his old deal and would have stayed on it if he wanted to leave. Now the Wiz can pay him far more than anyone else and he’s virtually untradeable.
Sign and trade is always an option
but to who? Don’t say lakers unless its for AD. Washington don’t want Westbrook back.
The only teams with enough cap space to sign him are rebuilding or non-contenders. Not sure he’s looking to go somewhere to lose more while being paid less.
He was always opting out. This was a formality whether sign and trade or signing with the wizards. Opt out deadline looming
Welcome to Philly.
Umm. Ok.
???
WAS gonna seriously overpay. Just like John Wall.
They should sign and trade him to the Lakers for Russ. Sit Russ for the season as his expiring contract runs out and then the Wiz have a huge salary spot to fill in free agency next summer. Perfect for a team in a mini rebuild
That is an awful suggestion. Why would they trade an all star in Beal just to get back a terrible player like Westbrook just to sit him?? They could just let Beal walk and not deal with the headache of WB. Man Laker fans are the worst at hypothetical trades
You left out “attach 4 future firsts and about 2-3 other players with actual value” in your offer to WAS.
Paying Beal the max, for a sniff of the play-in tournament.
He’a not loyal to Wizards. He’s loyal to $$$$. If he was loyal, he would be playing his hardest to improve and win. He needs to take ownership of Wizards not winning instead of blaming his teammates and front office.
Nets need to find a way to sign Beal and get rid of Irving. Atleast Beal comes to play everygame. Hes definetly not as good as Irving but ill take Beal’s devotion over Kyrie’s talent any day
There is no possible way for that to happen. Nets are stuck with Kyrie.
Why would Beal do that?— Kidnapping is not in the CBA!
Anyway Beal’s missed half the games this past year, and a dozen each two years before that.
It’s fans that drive the ‘win at all costs’ narrative. For a lot of players it’s their profession, nothing more. More power to BB, avoiding drama, securing generational wealth – if they want to pay him that, then he’d be crazy not to take it.
Beal is a liability on defense.
If there is a sign and trade. Could Washington theoretically sign him to the 5/240 and trade Beal wherever he wants or would it be the 4/190?
He’d be limited to the 4/$184MM in a sign-and-trade.
Whatever contract Beal ends up signing is not going to end and/or age well. Good luck to whichever team makes that decision
I understand everyone saying Beal can’t leave that money on the table. If he signs for the 4/190
He will still earn probably 15-25 million a year in 5 years if he stays healthy. So it’s not like he’s losing out on 50 million and he will also create more endorsement opportunities if he goes somewhere else. New Jersey sales
4/190 is the max he can sign for with another team, any reason he can’t do that deal with an opt out and re-sign next year for the max?
Player options can only be on the last year of a contract, not after the first year of a long-term deal.
Also, a team would need his full Bird rights to sign him to a full five-year max contract. Getting those Bird rights would take three years.
C’mon Pat… work the magic to bring him to south beach.
Go get that John Wall money. What could go wrong?
Wow. Dumb move, unless there’s a bigger dumbbell who’s will pay him over 20mil per year. The Wizzards front office must be doing a happy dance.
Now that Portland got Jeremy Grant and didn’t have to sacrifice the 7th pick what if they then shipped him to Washington DC (his hometown) and the 7th pick in a sign and trade to pair with Dame? Then the Wizards can trade the 7th and 10th picks to Sacramento and get Ivey who I think could be another Beal someday and a first round pick next year or the following.. Sacramento never makes the playoffs so you know it will be good. I think he’s staying in Washington though.