Bradley Beal and the Wizards are going to work together to find the right trade destination for Beal, but the biggest hurdle there, even above his huge salary, seems to be the no-trade clause that will ostensibly let Beal decide where he wants to go.
And when Bobby Marks joined the Sports Junkies on Thursday, that was the prevailing thought.
“That certainly didn’t help,” Marks laughed. “I think if there was a trade to be made for Beal and he didn’t have the clause, they’d still work with his agent; this now just limits your field. There may be a team that has the most to offer, but if Beal doesn’t want to go there, then there isn’t a deal to be made. It limits what can come back in a trade package because he likely doesn’t want to go somewhere if they’re giving up a lot.”
As Marks noted, Beal’s next team then also inherits that no-trade clause – something he knows intimately from trading for Kevin Garnett and then dealing him to Minnesota while he was with the Nets – so that also limits things, as they’ll need to find a team with the cap space and the wherewithal to pay Beal $150 million over the next three years and maybe his $57mm player option in 2026-27.
“Starting this off-season, you basically eliminate teams that already have two max players, so the timing of this is not the best,” Marks said. “You may have wanted to do this maybe two years ago, based on the circumstances.”
Even now, the best course may be to stay the course for another month or so before making an actual decision.
“The offseason is the honeymoon period, because there’s no games being played, so I think how they construct the roster will have a lot to do with what they do with Beal,” Marks said. “If they don’t bring back Kyle Kuzma, which seems likely because of salaries, then you’re losing a 20 point-per-game player…so Beal will have to probably have to take a big picture approach after the draft and free agency and maybe re-evaluate in mid-July. The end goal is to win with the Wizards, but with where the new front office is, it’s about deconstructing this roster, it seems.”
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The reverse, perhaps, goes for Kristaps Porzingis, who, despite the flux of the new front office, is now reportedly closer to opting in to his $36 million player option and not testing free agency – a move Marks indicated is probably the wise one.
“I just read that there’s not a market out there for him at $36 million; you don’t decline an option without an insurance policy,” Marks said. “The teams that have cap space are all rebuilding, and I don’t know how he fits there. There may be a team out there that would give him four years for $100 million, but where we are with the new CBA, you better make sure the guys you’re signing to big deals are the right player. I think he’s a really good third player on a really good team, and if he was a free agent, he’d have to take a pay cut. Opting in protects himself with the number, and he can work out an extension or whatever he wants to do, and so can the Wizards come 2024.”
So what are the chances both Beal and Porzingis are on the roster come opening day?
“Probably better than 50/50,” Marks said. “The momentum is this is the first inclination of traction, but I think the reality of it is understanding the route the front office wants to go; this isn’t going to be a Donovan Mitchell trade. You’re not forced to do something unless Beal comes to you and opens up his trade list – and that’s what we need to know: who are the teams he’d allow if they try to do something?”
Marks then called Beal “the 2023 version of Joe Johnson,” and, well, you can look back at that deal for the Nets, which Marks made, as a guideline, perhaps.
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“When we traded for Johnson with the Nets, we gave up four expiring contracts and a future No. 1. That’s the market you’re looking at,” Marks said. “Do you want to do a salary dump and just recoup a pick? I don’t know if you can get the next Lauri Markkanen and hit gold.”
There is a hypothetical trade Marks put out on Twitter where the Wiz would send Beal to the Knicks for a true expiring deal in Derrick Rose ($15.6 million team option for 23-24), Evan Fournier (one guaranteed year at $18mm and a 24-25 team option), Mitchell Robinson (three years at $15.6mm or less), and two first-round picks: the 2024 first-rounder that was Washington’s originally, and a Top 14-protected 2025 pick.
Almost $50 million in salary to facilitate Beal’s $43.2 million (and perhaps a second player), but it’s the picks that are the key – which Cakes noted, and Marks confirmed.
“They win by unloading the salary, but lose with what they’re getting back in a bunch of mismatched pieces,” Cakes said, and that’s when Marks put the punctuation mark on the efforts: “You’re not going to win any trade, that’s the reality, so you just have to set your goals as to what you want back and try to meet as many as possible.”
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