JUNKIES: Neil Greenberg's thoughts on the Bradley Beal trade framework

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Washington Post sports columnist Neil Greenberg was the latest to weigh in on Bradley Beal heading to Phoenix, joining the Sports Junkies Tuesday morning to discuss the big deal – and while he wasn’t surprised Beal was dealt, he is surprised it happened so quickly after some of what the new front office said when they were introduced.

“I was a little surprised with how quickly this happened; you look at the previous executives that have handled these matters, and they seemed convinced Beal was the guy to build around, but it took the new regime like 10 seconds to realize he wasn’t,” Greenberg said. “I don’t know when it happened, years ago, but there was a notion Beal was the guy, the primary piece of No. 2 of a potential Big 3, but nothing ever supported that, and with his decline over the last few years, it was foolish to offer him a max deal, let alone double down and give him a no-trade clause. That solidified that there would be problems.”

And, now that we know the likely haul, is this a good trade?

“I give the Wizards an A for two reasons; one, they get out of the contract, which was probably the worst in the NBA, and two, now they have a clear direction,” Greenberg said. “They’ve been in a messy middle for a while, getting draft picks in the middle of the lottery and not getting impact players to build around, and it’s not a destination. At least now the direction is a rebuild.”

But there’s one question there, still.

“How long is this going to take? Because they may not return to competitiveness for three or four years at this point, so it may be a long road,” Greenberg said. “But, in terms of clarity for the direction of the franchise, it was the move they needed to make.”

Cakes wondered if the Wizards have overpaid guys like Beal and Otto Porter to try to make DC a destination – but Greenberg had some interesting thoughts on that vis-à-vis Beal.

“It’s an overpay on the off-the-court type stuff, too, because Beal was great for Washington DC. He did a lot of good for the community and was very philanthropic, and Ted Leonsis puts a lot of stock into that, as he calls it the double bottom line,” Greenberg said. “But this is a basketball business, and those are two totally separate entities that don’t mix. Having a great relationship with players is fantastic, but basketball is a business, and we’ve seen what happens when you don’t trade an asset at the right time, and then add in that no-trade clause that gives you no leverage, nothing you can do that can increase the value of the asset past just wanting to get out of it. The only way they become a destination is if they land two big free agents at the same time, and say we’re starting from ground zero and you can be the building blocks for the future – but that requires an overpay, too.”

Check out Greenberg’s entire segment above, which includes thoughts on what the Wizards will do with CP3, how the Wizards’ rebuild could compare to that of the Nationals, and more!

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