Bradley Beal was a great player in Washington, but as the Junkies heavily discussed on Monday, it doesn’t seem like he had many, if any, ‘iconic’ moments as a Wizard – and when David Aldridge joined the guys to discuss Beal’s pending trade to Phoenix, he came up with a couple ideas of big moments, but understood the sentiment.
“There were a few, but people forget, and I get it; like, when Wall hits the big shot at the end of that game against Boston, Beal was outstanding in that whole game, especially the fourth quarter,” Aldridge said. “He had a play against Dallas where he went the length of the floor and laid it in at the buzzer, and a shot to beat Portland a few years ago – but I get your point, there weren't a ton of them. There wasn’t like a greatest hits of game-winning shots. He was a guy that was just really good for four quarters, but he wasn't the guy that won the game for you at the end too often.”
Really good ended up getting Beal a five-year max deal with a no-trade clause by the previous front office, one that hamstrung the Wizards to the point that they got pennies on the dollar for him in the deal to Phoenix.
Big contracts are movable, for good assets no less…but as Aldridge agreed with the Junks, it was that no-trade clause that was easily the worst part of that max deal.
“They made the decision that they were gonna try to build around Brad after they traded John Wall, and some of us thought that if you're gonna trade John Wall, you should trade Beal, too, and start over, but they didn’t see it that way, and thought they could build around Beal,” Aldridge said. “They tried and it didn't work…and so, as bad as the contract is, you can trade contracts. Everybody can get traded in this league; the problem was the no-trade clause. I thought it wasn’t a big deal at the time, and I was wrong, because it really limited the available universe of potential trades that they could do, because Brad could veto everything.”
Aldridge then explained how, if you want to blame anyone for the haul (or lack thereof) the Wizards will get from the Suns, you can pin it on Beal because Phoenix is where he clearly wanted to go when all offers were in – but it’s ultimately on the owner.
“Brad had the final say, so the no-trade is what killed anything, and that's what that was the unforgivable sin,” Aldridge said. “I don't care who came up with it, if it was Mark Bartelstein or Tommy Sheppard or whomever – Ted Leonsis is the owner of this team and he said yes, so it’s on Ted, period.
No one will admit to it, but I don’t think it came from the Wizards, because why would they do that? I don’t know for sure, but I’d think his agent said Brad would be more comfortable if he had a no-trade – but everybody knew that they were gonna have to trade him at some point, so if you know you're going to have to trade him, why on earth would you give him a no-trade clause? It was a big mistake.”
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Even though the Wizards could offer him the most money, perhaps Beal wanted to make sure he made that money in DC and wanted to be loyal – but here we are, a year into the deal, and he’s on his way out as a new front office is on its way in…and perhaps Phoenix isn’t actually the best fit?
“It's not the greatest fit to me because I think he and Devin Booker are very similar; Booker is probably a little bit more consistent of a shooter, but they’ll take turns bringing the ball up, so I'm not really all that concerned about it, but it’s an odd fit,” Aldridge said, “and they are really hamstrung now, because they do not have a lot of ways to add to the roster other than minimum deals. That's why it's gonna take a while to work out this pick stuff with the Wizards – the Suns have no first-round picks to trade, and they’re going to have to have some picks available to them at some point in the next few years.”
Aldridge thinks the deal will be “at least four” second-rounders, which means that if that’s the minimum, the Suns would have three firsts (2024, 26, 28) and two seconds (they own all but 2029’s right now) over the next seven drafts.
The pick swaps are of minimal impact, too, in his eyes, as it’s likely to be years before that would be in Washington’s favor…so now, it’s pretty much championship or bust for Beal and the Suns.
“It's a gamble, no question, for Phoenix. They are all in on three guys that who are really talented and can really score, but also get hurt a lot – and when they do, they’re out for a while, not just a couple games,” Aldridge said. “I think they'll move DeAndre Ayton and get something for him, but it's a big gamble that Phoenix is taking financially with the new CBA. They’re going to really pay the down the road for this. The luxury tax penalties for hitting that second apron, which they are going to obliterate with this group, are just onerous, and it's going to be impossible for them to make any deals to improve their team.”
Listen to Aldridge’s entire conversation with the Junkies above!
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