It finally arrived Wednesday afternoon: the end of an era, and an error.
Bradley Beal is no longer a member of the Suns, having reportedly agreed to a buyout that will allow him to leave Phoenix after two seasons that drastically underperformed the high hopes Mat Ishbia and Co. — and, um, also some other people — had when they agreed to take on the remainder of the five-year, $251 million contract the former All-NBA shooting guard signed in the summer of 2022.
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The buyout also marks the end of the infamous no-trade clause that allowed Beal to steer his way to Phoenix when he exited Washington, that caused so much consternation last season as the Suns tried to find an off-ramp for their experiment gone awry, and that led to a pact inked by a three-time All-Star being widely referred to as the worst contract in all of the NBA. If some deranged person ever starts a museum dedicated to distress-inducing contractual minutiae, one can only hope they raise a “Bradley Beal’s Full No-Trade Clause (2022-25)” banner to the rafters.
The decidedly underwhelming final tally:
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106 games with Beal in a Suns uniform, 15 of which saw him come off the bench in a disastrous 2024-25 campaign;
Phoenix has now parted ways with both Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal this offseason. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
(Christian Petersen via Getty Images)
Beal will reportedly give back $13.8 million of the $110.8 million he was owed over the final two seasons of his contract. That would allow the Suns to be able to use the stretch provision in the collective bargaining agreement to spread the remainder of his salary over the next five seasons — twice the number of years remaining on his contract, plus one more. They have until Aug. 31 to officially make that decision.
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The upside of a waive-and-stretch: Reducing Beal’s cap hit for the 2025-26 season from nearly $53.7 million to about $19.4 million (the $97 million he’d still be owed after giving back $13.8 million, divided by five) would get the previously, utterly capped-out Suns not only below both aprons, but also below the luxury tax line — a move estimated to save Ishbia more than $200 million in tax penalties this season alone.
In the long view, it would also put the Suns on the path to unfreezing their 2032 first-round draft pick — the next one they fully control, after all the wheeling and dealing and swap-rights-surrendering that landed them in this spot. In the shorter term, it would free them from the roster-building restrictions that inhibit second-apron teams — no access to salary-cap exceptions (midlevel, biannual, etc.) to sign players, an inability to aggregate salaries in trade or execute sign-and-trade deals, can’t make trades that increase your payroll, etc. — and would’ve made retrofitting the roster around the just re-extended Devin Booker even more difficult.
Those tax savings and that newfound flexibility come at a dear cost, though. As will be the case with Damian Lillard’s waived-and-stretched salary in Milwaukee, the Beal deal will continue to haunt Phoenix in the form of an immovable $19.4 million dead-money ghost malingering on the balance sheet through the end of the 2029-30 season — a period during which an overhauled Suns brain trust led by new general manager Brian Gregory and new head coach Jordan Ott already figured to have their work cut out for them as they attempted to steer back toward consistent contention in the always-crowded West through the early-to-mid-30s of Booker — an excellent player, but not a transcendent one, and one who might be challenging to build around as his price tag nears $70 million a season.
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It’s not easy to see a path to the top of the conference for a Suns team comprised of Booker, new arrivals Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks and Mark Williams, holdover perimeter vets Royce O’Neale and Grayson Allen, youngsters Ryan Dunn, Oso Ighodaro and Collin Gillespie, and rookies Khaman Maluach, Rasheer Fleming and Koby Brea. In moving on from Beal, though — and, to a lesser extent, Durant, whose arrival in the immediate aftermath of Ishbia’s purchase of the franchise signaled a damn-the-torpedoes pursuit of instant title gratification that has now set the Suns back several years — it is much easier for Phoenix’s decision-makers to start finding their way toward something different in the Valley. That’s something, at least.
Why Beal could be a steal for the Clippers
Also something, potentially? Bradley Beal, the basketball player, as he arrives in L.A. — not as a $50 million man expected to round out a Big 3, but as a $5.3 million man stepping into the spot just vacated by Norman Powell on a Clippers team that won 50 games despite myriad injuries, pushed the Nuggets to the brink in Round 1 and looks to have gotten both bigger and deeper this summer.
On one hand, Beal wasn’t better last season than Powell, who I believed merited an All-Star selection. On the other, if Beal can replicate his 2024-25 production for Tyronn Lue next season — 17 points, 3.3 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 1.1 steals in 32.1 minutes per game, shooting 56.5% on 2-pointers, 38.6% from 3-point range on five attempts per game, and 80.3% from the free-throw line — he’d be an absolute steal at the price point of What’s Left of L.A.’s Non-taxpayer Midlevel Exception … and combined with power forward John Collins, the primary return from the Powell trade, could represent an overall upgrade in depth, talent and lineup versatility for a Clippers team with its sights set on significantly more than just another first-round appearance.
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It’s within the realm of possibility that — freed from the uncertainty of the “who’s actually our point guard?” timeshare in Phoenix, and provided steady service as a scorer by premier playmaker James Harden, reportedly a “focal point” in the recruitment efforts that led to this signing — Beal could actually exceed those diminished expectations, too.
A lot of the things that made Beal an enticing prospective addition in Phoenix remain true. He’s a credible three-level scoring threat capable of initiating and finishing possessions at a high level, and has developed into a high-volume, high-efficiency dribble penetrator; among 65 players to average at least nine drives to the basket per game last season, Beal ranked first in field-goal percentage on those forays to the cup, converting 59.2% of them. (Overall, he shot 74% at the rim and 51% from floater range, according to Cleaning the Glass — both career-best marks.) He’s capable of operating off the ball, ranking in the 65th percentile or higher in points scored per play on cuts five times in the last seven seasons, according to Synergy; he’s shot 38% or better on catch-and-shoot 3-pointers five times in the last seven years, too.
Running a pick-and-roll, working in the dribble handoff game, filling the lane or trailing the play in transition — Beal can still do all of those things at a good-or-better level, whether alongside a proper point guard like Harden (and maybe Chris Paul?) or shifted over into more of a shot-creating role with second-unit groups, and still has enough athleticism and quickness to acquit himself fairly well defensively in the backcourt. In a lower-usage, lower-responsibility role on a team with as much talent and as many options as the Clippers, it seems eminently possible his overall play and production might perk up.
The glass-half-empty view: All of that seemed true heading into his tenure in Phoenix, and it, um, didn’t work out so hot … thanks in large part to a persistent inability to stay on the court.
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After battling injuries early in his career that, at one point, had him anticipating the need for playing-time restrictions for the rest of his career, Beal transformed into a workhorse for Washington, playing more minutes than anybody besides Damian Lillard between 2016 and 2021. Things have changed, though: Beal has missed 142 games over the past four seasons, played just 53 games in each of his two seasons in Phoenix, and hasn’t played more than 53 games since 2020-21. As noted by Kellan Olson of Arizona Sports, the absences were particularly damaging last season due to their maddening consistency: “This past year, Beal had 11 different pockets of time he missed for a total of 28 contests on the sidelines, not counting him sitting for the meaningless finale. The most games in a row he played was 14, the only double-digit streak.”
The specter of inconsistent availability looms particularly large for a Clippers team reliant on the perpetually unpredictable health of Kawhi Leonard, as well as aging veterans like Harden (who turns 36 next month), trade-deadline acquisition Bogdan Bogdanović (who turns 33 next month), re-signed forward Nicolas Batum (who’ll turn 37 in December), and incoming backup center Brook Lopez (who’ll turn 37 next April). If Beal once again battles a battery of ailments, it’ll once again be difficult for him to catch and sustain a rhythm, and for his new teammates to develop the kind of cohesion that can help a team weather the storm and stress of the postseason and win multiple playoff series — something the Clippers haven’t done since 2021, and that Beal has never done, last getting out of the first round with the Wizards in 2017.
Beal was a man on fire back then: a 23-year-old up-and-comer throwing haymakers alongside running buddy John Wall, seemingly poised for persistent postseason performance. His career — in Washington, first alongside Wall and then as the main man, and then during this misbegotten run in Phoenix — has unfolded differently. Now, he’ll get the chance to rewrite his story and rehabilitate his reputation; to prove he can, after all, be a contributor to a team of championship consequence.
Wednesday marked the end of an era, and an error. With any luck, though, it also marked the start of something better, for all parties involved.
