NBA free agency 2016: Wizards want Bradley Beal on five-year max
With Kevin Durant not heading to Washington, the Wizards are rushing to try and lock Bradley Beal up to a five-year max contract
For the past year, the speculation entering 2016 NBA free agency has been that the Washington Wizards are going to be heavy players in the sweepstakes for forward Kevin Durant. It would be a homecoming for the former MVP if that were the case, but the past few weeks have all but confirmed that KD won’t be coming to our nation’s capital. Instead, the Wizards are now looking like they’ll have to scramble to hang onto their own big asset in free agency: Bradley Beal.
According to David Aldridge of NBA.com, the Wizards are moving on from missing out on Durant and are now trying to lock up Bradley Beal to a five-year max contract that would pay the wing $133 million over the course of the contract:
Wizards, moving on from Durant, will try and hammer out framework of new deal for Bradley Beal tonight. Max would run five years, $133M.
— David Aldridge (@davidaldridgedc) July 1, 2016
Yes, that is a substantial amount of money to pay for Bradley Beal.
However, the Wizards aren’t putting all of their chips into one basket. According the ESPN’s Marc Stein, the framework of a deal that would sign Beal to the max would still allow the Wizards to pursue players like Nicolas Batum, Al Horford, and other big names on the market:
And then the Wiz can go out and try to make a deal with an Al Horford or a Ryan Anderson or a Nic Batum before making Beal's deal official.
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) July 1, 2016
Things have definitely gone downhill in a hurry for the Wizards considering the discrepancy between landing Durant and re-signing Bradley Beal for that amount of money. However, adding another one of those players on the market would at least soften the blow.
For all your NBA Free Agency news, updates, and more, stay up to date with the FanSided NBA hub.