The Wizards contemplated reacquiring Bradley Beal prior to the trade deadline, Marc Stein reports in his latest Substack post.
In their failed quest to acquire Jimmy Butler from the Heat, the Suns desperately tried to find a third team that would take Beal’s maximum-salary contract, since Miami was unwilling to do so. With Phoenix operating over the second apron, the only way it could pull off that trade and retain Kevin Durant and Devin Booker was to trade Beal. Butler, of course, wound up getting dealt to the Warriors.
Washington sent Beal to the Suns in the summer of 2023. The previous year, Washington signed Beal to five-year extension with a no-trade clause, which he waived in that deal.
However, Beal balked at waiving the clause before this year’s deadline, so even if the Wizards, Suns, and Heat had figured out a trade construction that sent him to Washington and Butler to Phoenix while appeasing all three teams, Beal may not have signed off.
It’s unknown exactly what type of enticements the Wizards were seeking to take on Beal’s contract. They felt one potential incentive for Beal to return to Washington was that he could have become the franchise’s all-time leading scorer. He racked up 15,391 points with the Wizards, 160 points behind Elvin Hayes.
Previous reporting from ESPN stated that the Wizards and Hawks were the only two teams to consider the idea of acquiring Beal at the trade deadline.
Beal, who has two years left on his contract, averaged 23.0 points, 4.6 rebounds and 4.9 assists in seven February games but the Suns went 1-6 in those contests. He returned to action on Sunday after missing two games with tightness in his left calf.
Wow just when you thought it could not get any dumber than giving him that contract in the first place….actually considering to take it back again. And he says NOPE.
The Wizards are competing for draft position and that’s all. If they were compensated for taking his contract, then it would have been a good deal. They got picks for trading him, and they wanted picks to trade for him. Pretty smart if it had worked out.
Dumb NBA GMs are getting exposed this season I see.
To be honest, that would’ve been a great move by the Wizards front office.
Trade Beal despite having an untradeable contract and without attaching picks, but even getting a few picks (2nds and swaps, but still).
In the meantime be bad and get two high draft picks.
Then get Beal back and get another pick or two because the contract is still untradeable.
The contract was signed by the old front office. Had the new front office made trades for Beal twice and got assets in both deals, that would have been a great move. Also, his contract is two more years after this season, so not as atrocious anymore than two years ago.
So when is the Jimmy Butler Miami house scandal article gonna drop?
They might have done it if suns still had their 2031 unprotected first bc it’s still factually true it’s a 100% times more valuable then the 3 first ( likely to come from the cavs ) they got from the jazz