Wizards Get Meager Haul For Bradley Beal - But What More Could They Have Done?
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Typically, players of Bradley Beal’s caliber command a hefty return when they become available on the trade market. We’ve seen future Hall-of-Famers, such as Kevin Durant, moved for multiple young, promising players on top of four first-round picks. Last offseason, the Rudy Gobert trade landed Utah five first-round picks and the talented Walker Kessler in exchange for their big man. So one would assume that Bradley Beal - a three-time all-star still in his prime - would go for a similarly large package. Except he wasn’t. So why is that?
The main thing that kept Washington from receiving a better package was Beal’s no-trade clause. He is currently the only player in the NBA with one, and it gives him the power to veto any trade he is a part of. Essentially, if Bradley doesn’t want to go to a certain team, he won’t. The Wizard’s front office was powerless to send Beal somewhere he didn’t want to be, which greatly narrowed down the potential options of organizations they could negotiate with.
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At the end of the day, Washington’s star shooting guard wanted to go to a contending team where he could chase his first NBA championship, something he has never had a great chance to do before. There were talks of him potentially teaming up with Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo on the Miami Heat, a team just coming off a Finals appearance. Some said that Damian Lillard and the Portland Trail Blazers were an attractive option. However, the Wizards knew that there was a very short list of teams that Beal would allow himself to be moved to, which meant that Washington held very little negotiating power.
Another factor that lowered the value of the trade package was Bradley Beal’s massive contract. He still has four years and just over $200 million left on his deal, which is an expensive price to pay for even the league’s top players. And while Beal is a proven all-star, he hasn’t ascended to superstardom quite yet, which makes his contract a bit of an overpay. Other teams knew this and were hesitant to take on that kind of financial commitment for a player that has never been in the MVP conversation. While Bradley Beal is a phenomenal player, the NBA is all about finding value, and his current deal is far from a bargain.
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So in the end, the Wizards received 38-year-old Chris Paul, Landrey Shamet, four first-round picks swaps, six second-round picks, and cash considerations for Beal (they also gave up Isaiah Todd and Jordan Goodwin in the deal). Paul is on a sizable contract himself, and other than a few pick swaps that may or may not be valuable down the line, there isn’t much to write home about in this package that Washington got. Considering the lucrative offers that other great players have drawn in the trade market over the past few years, this haul definitely falls short of what is normally expected for a player like Bradley Beal.
The problem was that Bradley Beal’s contract is anything but normal. Most players don’t get four or five-year-long offers. This past season, only three players were higher-paid than Beal (those being Steph Curry, Lebron James, and Kevin Durant). And nobody else in the entire NBA has a no-trade clause written into their contract. With all these factors combined, Bradley Beal became significantly difficult to move for Washington. Beal and his favorite teams held all the power, and the Wizards eventually had to accept a trade package that wasn’t what they had hoped for.
But in all honesty, what more could they have done? Given the situation the Wizards were in, they were never going to get back multiple valuable assets for Bradley Beal. Could you argue that they never should have signed him to that contract in the first place? Yes, you definitely could. In retrospect, most people would say that that lucrative offer was a mistake. So, the team was forced to reconcile with their error and trade their star for much less than he as a player is worth. They did manage to gain a plethora of second-round picks, future pick swaps, and a couple of solid players in the deal, which is a decent return on investment. This move sets up the Wizards for a rebuild, and the pieces they received in the Beal trade are a good starting point for what’s to come down the line. While it certainly isn’t what Washington fans were hoping for, the Bradley Beal trade package was about as good as it possibly could have been.
