NBA rumors: Wizards gave 'real consideration' to Bradley Beal reunion at trade deadline
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It’s been just over a year and a half since the Phoenix Suns gave the Washington Wizards a metaphorical Get Out of Jail Free card, taking on the majority of Bradley Beal’s quarter-billion dollar contract in exchange for Chris Paul — who was traded to Golden State just 12 days later — Landry Shamet, and whopping ten picks swaps between 2023 and 2030. But apparently, as the old saying goes, absence makes the heart grow fonder, because at the trade deadline, it turns out the Wizards were sniffing around about potentially re-acquiring their former star.
“It turns out that the Washington Wizards, stunning as it sounds, gave real consideration to bringing Beal to the nation’s capital. The Wizards, of course, are the team that gave Beal that monster five-year, $251 million contract adorned with a full no-trade clause in the first place,” writes longtime NBA insider Marc Stein. “While there continues to be no indication that Beal would have blessed such a trade to go through, league sources say Washington gave the concept legitimate contemplation.”
At first glance, the idea of bringing Bradley Beal back to D.C. might seem like a curious one. The Wizards have no present worth talking about, and a future that isn’t particularly bright, but there is no reason for Washington to be inclined to want to re-live their very modest past either. Then again, any team willing to saddle themselves with Beal’s monstrosity of a contract would be given a decent amount of draft compensation to take on that kind of money. And that, for the Wizards, could’ve been intriguing.
“The extent of the draft compensation sweeteners that would have been furnished to the Wizards as inducement for reacquiring Beal — had the talks gained any real traction — is not precisely known,” Stein stated.
Talks never got that far. Stein and others have reported that Beal never considered waving his no-trade clause at any point leading up to the NBA Trade Deadline, which not only ensured that Beal would remain in Phoenix, but it also almost guaranteed that the Suns would be unable to make a meaningful trade to upgrade their roster in what is increasingly looking like a lost season.
Had Beal returned to Washington, or if that ever comes to be down the road, he is only 160 points behind Elvin Hayes as the leading scorer in franchise history. Whether that means anything to Beal, whose basketball intentions have been called into question going back to his time in Washington, is unclear.
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