$111 million.
That is the amount of money owed Bradley Beal over the last two years of his contract with the Phoenix Suns. For reference, that's about double what Adele paid to acquire Sylvester Stallone's mansion, according to Essential Home. $111 million is also 10% more expensive than the making of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-verse. And rightly so: Beal had left the Washington Wizards on a high, a three-time All-Star and third-team All-NBA recipient. The Suns rightly saw in him the perfect tertiary star to Devin Booker and Kevin Durant, the newest Big Three.
Two seasons later, Beal has been anything but. His time with Phoenix has been notable only for how steep the cliff was for him, averaging his lowest PPG since 2015 on a barely league-average PER. As for the Suns themselves, we can call the dual experiments of Beal and KD a collective failure after straight up failing to make the playoffs in 2025. Beal's performance was particularly damning: Regardless of who takes your place, going from an advertised "big three" member to the bench rotation is just embarrassing.
And yet, if there's anyone in Phoenix that is at least cynically happy after the past two seasons, it's probably Beal himself. Minutes or not, he's still getting paid at the super-max level, and even now with a buyout from the Suns all but looming over his head (also super embarrassing for a super-max player), Beal is still bound for a huge check. Not to mention that he's still a highly desirable player in the NBA; Beal still operates as one of the league's best shooters and microwaves, and he was still an efficient scorer last season despite everything.
However, as anticipated as Beal's buyout and subsequent signing is, no movement has been made on his end to finalize the deal. And there's a sneaky reason for that.
Because the Suns might be subject to one last con
NBA insider Marc Stein recently proposed a theory as to the holdup on Beal's move out of Phoenix, and it all has to do with money.
"League sources say Bradley Beal’s current contract stipulates that he is owed a 25% advance payment on his 2025-26 salary on July 15," Stein wrote. "As in this coming Tuesday. The early payment is valued at more than $13 million. While sources say that Beal will ultimately receive that amount no matter how his eventual exit from the Suns plays out, it is believed that he could elect to wait for that payment to go through before proceeding with his departure from the desert."
Donnie Druin of Sports Illustrated compiled Stein's report and an opinion from ESPN's Shams Charania to paint a picture of Beal holding the Suns hostage. Basically, the process is intricate for Phoenix and Beal to agree on a buyout amount: The Suns probably want free of both luxury tax aprons if they can, and doing so would try to stretch Beal's contract similar to Damian Lillard's buyout from Milwaukee.
Likely, one of the first stipulations that Beal has to agreeing to such a thing would be for the advance payment in his contract to kick in. And for a player who has already fleeced the Suns for nine digits, are we really surprised that he's pulling one last scheme?