Phoenix Suns trade for Bradley Beal
The Suns make another blockbuster trade, this time bringing in former Wizards guard Bradley Beal, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski was first to report the news Sunday.
BREAKING: The Washington Wizards are finalizing a trade to send All-Star G Bradley Beal to the Phoenix Suns, sources tell ESPN. Beal’s waiving his no-trade to form a new Big 3 with Devin Booker and Kevin Durant. Teams are still working thru framework, but Beal is headed to Suns. pic.twitter.com/0lQrSh370q
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 18, 2023
In return for Bradley Beal, the Wizards will receive Chris Paul, Landry Shamet, multiple second-round picks, and a few pick swaps as well. The exact details regarding the trade likely won’t be known for a few more days, per Woj.
What is clear is the reformation taking place of the Phoenix’s new Big 3. It clearly wasn’t working with Chris Paul, so why not just replace him with Bradley Beal? He may not be close to the playmaker Paul is, but he is leaps and bounds a better scorer.
This move also all but guarantees that Ayton will be traded somewhat soon. Before this trade, the Suns were over the cap and now take one of the most expensive contracts in all of basketball.
So if the Suns want to be able to improve this roster in any capacity, they will have to shed some salary and that likely starts with moving Deandre Ayton, who has expressed a desire to leave on multiple occasions.
I mean that to me seems to be the only way to free up any sort of salary for this Suns team. Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, and Ayton are all on max contracts that run through 2025-26. Now, obviously they aren’t going to move Durant after all they gave up for him or from Booker given his history with the team.
In all honesty, I don’t know what this move does for the Suns. It gives them another elite scoring option, but where is their depth? It was the biggest issue for this Suns team against the Denver Nuggets. Yeah the starting five may be elite, but they had nobody coming off the bench.
The Nuggets were easily able to take advantage of it. So yeah now you can maybe score some more, but you will still have no depth. This Beal contract will make it very hard for this Suns team to add that necessary depth outside of their own free agents, even with the Ayton trade.
So yeah this is a trade that seems sexy on paper and certainly is flashy. But if I’m being honest, I don’t know how much better this Suns team is going to get.
Adding a 29-year-old guard past his prime with a $50 million salary isn’t going to help address the issues of depth you had. This bench is still very very weak and a lot will fall on the backs of these starters.
With Durant going on 35 and Beal approaching 30, can you really rely on these two to carry you throughout the season? I just don’t think they will have enough left in the tank, especially with little to no help from the bench unit.
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