As Grant & Danny went on the air Tuesday, it had been about 36 hours since news of the framework of the Bradley Beal to Phoenix deal was first revealed, and a few hours since we knew the Wizards were also sending a couple young players to Phoenix to help round out their roster.
That was, as Grant Paulsen said, “a chance for you to get over the sticker shock of the return,” which is, any way you slice it, pennies on the dollar to simply get out from under Beal’s contract.
“They were not going to get young talent back, or first-round picks back almost certainly. We had multiple front office insiders on that said this was going to be re-arranging of some veteran contracts and maybe some second-round picks,” Grant said. “I’m curious to see if you have an issue with the return for Beal, an excellent Wizard who was never a superstar but was an All-Star, and had a contract that was a complete albatross.”
Grant was ready, because Beal had “one of the worst contracts in NBA history,” with a poison pill of the no-trade clause on top of that.
“I knew the leverage with that no-trade clause made it impossible to get anything back, so I prepared myself for this awful return. I’m just happy to be out of the horrible, egregiously unacceptable deal that Beal and tis team had agreed upon – based both on money and the no-trade clause.”
Danny was, too, because just the tenth-ever no-trade clause in NBA history was the key.
“Overpaying players happens all the time, and sometimes it is what it is, but the no-trade clause was the most egregious part of that,” Danny said.
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But then, he wanted to try, one last time, to convert those who are angry about what they got back:
“Think about the last two ‘untradeable’ contracts Washington traded, in John Wall and Gilbert Arenas. What did they get back?” Danny asked. “Someone else’s untradeable contract for a slightly less amount of time. That’s the best you can do; the best you can get is out of your own problem and into someone else’s for a shorter time. This to me is better than both of those. I’m not telling you this is cause for celebration or a ticker-tape parade, because you’re forced to re-visit all the bad decisions that led to this point – but you don’t have a bad contract back. You have someone in Chris Paul who you will either buyout or be able to spin for something that will tally the final haul. You don’t have an albatross, a long-term bad deal – you’re free and clear now. It’s not great, but it’s better than the alternative.”
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