ESPN’s Kevin Pelton Hands Out Idiotic Trade Grades For Bradley Beal

ESPN’s Kevin Pelton Hands Out Idiotic Trade Grades For Bradley Beal

I used to always love reading trade grades from Kevin Pelton any time a big deal went down in the NBA. Well, that was before ESPN locked all the content worth anything behind a paywall. Now I’m sure a fraction of the people actually read them because other media outlets just post the results.

Hat tip: Thank you, NESN!

Bradley Beal has been traded to the Phoenix Suns and there should really only be one takeaway. It kinda feels like the Suns stole Beal. I’ll say it one more time for the people in the back. Somehow the Phoenix Suns went from waiving Chris Paul to landing Beal. I’m not sure how this is possible in any other sport other than the NBA. The Suns had zero leverage and ended up with a really good player even if that player is overpaid.

Kevin Pelton somehow disagrees. He disagrees so much that he gave the Suns a D for the trade.

“Worse yet, Beal is early in the five-year contract he signed with Washington less than a year ago,” Pelton wrote Sunday on ESPN.com. “His salary increases to $57 million in 2026-27 (a player option), when Beal will be 33. An escalating salary cap will likely grow faster than Beal’s contract, but not enough to offset age-related decline. That’s why the return the Wizards got in terms of picks and players isn’t commensurate with Beal’s reputation as a player.

“More so than whether Beal was the right star to pursue to go with Booker and Durant, the question for the Suns is whether adding a star was the right move as opposed to trying to use Paul’s contract to beef up their depth with multiple contributors.”

“Moreover, Phoenix again traded multiple contributors for a single player,” Pelton wrote. “The quartet of Beal, Booker, Durant and center Deandre Ayton will combine to make $163 million in 2023-24, enough to already put the Suns into the luxury tax without signing even a fifth player to make a full lineup.

I’m sorry but this is so dumb. Yes, we get the new rules and we get that Beal makes too much money. This also shouldn’t be too hard to understand.

Here’s what Phoenix was looking at this offseason:

1. Keep Chris Paul and have the vet minimum

2. Waive Paul and have either the $12.2M or $5M tax midlevel, vet minimum

3. Trade Paul for Bradley Beal

From a pure basketball viewpoint (forget about the second apron, draft… https://t.co/KS3O2g7rbf

— Bobby Marks (@BobbyMarks42) June 19, 2023

Of course, option three makes the most sense and it’s not even worth discussing. Beal averaged at least 30 points per game in back-to-back seasons in 2019-20 and 2020-21. He’s probably now the best third option in the league. They gave up nothing. The swaps are very unlikely to convey given where the Wizards are. A couple of second round picks and Chris Paul lands you Beal? Every team in the league signs up for that yesterday regardless of the circumstances.

Pelton also gave the Wizards a B- which is so brain dead. Had they traded him a year ago, like we talked about, they get way more. Old as dirt CP3, a couple second rounders, and Landry Shamet gets you a B-. Incredible. Had the Wizards made the trade with Miami and gotten back Kyle Lowry does that mean they would have gotten an A?

Is ESPN really putting this kind of product behind a paywall? No wonder why they’re firing people! What an awful product.