The Phoenix Suns completed the first step of blowing this roster up and completely re-doing what was supposed to be a championship-worthy approach. The next step should be figuring out what they’re going to do about Bradley Beal. They acquired him from the Washington Wizards in a desperate attempt to build a Big 3 core. Instead, they didn’t even win a playoff series.
The Suns, realistically, have two options with Beal: either trade him or buy him out of his contract. Trading him is hard because he has a no-trade clause, meaning he’d need to approve any trade move. Buying him out isn’t necessarily easy either because he has two years left on his contract and due $111 million.
If you’re the Suns, it’s a terrible position to be in with Beal. They need to offload him to continue what looks to be a full rebuild, but there’s no easy way to get out. It’s going to be a costly one, but it might not be worth waiting around for Beal to decide if he wants to break his no trade clause again.
The Suns know how to get rid of Bradley Beal, it’s just going to cost a lot
The Suns should do whatever it takes to move on from Bradley Beal, which in this case means they need to buy him out of his contract. It’s not an easy decision, but one that needs to be made. According to Sports Illustrated, the Suns can’t simply release Beal, stretch his contract out and take the cap hit because he’s more than 15 percent of the team’s cap.
So their only option is to hope he agrees to a reduced contract payout, less than the $111 million he’s due, somewhere in the $80 million or $90 million range. They should be focused on that and not trying to bring him back. It’s a failed experiment that’s only going to further set the franchise back.
After trading Durant, the Suns are essentially in the same spot they were before. Their biggest problem is they don’t have a true ball handler to run this offense. Jalen Green isn’t a true point guard. He’s a score-first guard that looks to create for himself. Devin Booker is the same. Until Phoenix can get a real guard on the roster, it won’t matter how many stars they load up on.
And until they move on from Beal, they’ll always have that problem looming over them. Beal wasn’t the player they wanted him to be. He’s no longer the player he was early on in his career. They know what they need to do, they’re just hesitant to do it. After trading Durant, they’ve left themselves no other option.