The Washington Wizards have been very active in the trade market over the last few seasons as arguably their biggest trade in recent memory was the shove the franchise needed to fully commit to a rebuild.
Washington made headlines with the move that sent long-time Wizard star Bradley Beal to the Phoenix Suns in a blockbuster in the summer of 2023. And while the deal originally seemed like the Wizards single handily helped Suns general manager James Jones build a superteam in Phoenix, the move has yet to impact the Western Conference team like the rest of the NBA expected it to.
The Suns struggled to get their big three of Devin Booker, Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal on the court at the same time in year one. Between the inconsistent lineups and the lack of a true point guard on the roster, Phoenix found themselves getting bounced from the first round of the playoffs last season.
Entering this year, the team hoped for a different result as they made the move to land a starting point guard in Tyus Jones during the offseason. However, despite having a mostly healthy roster throughout the start of the 2024/25 season and a pass-first guard in the starting lineup, the Suns struggles have continued.
As a result, Phoenix opted to make a starting lineup change as the team struggled to translate their talented roster on paper to wins in the regular season. Beal happened to be one of the starters that head coach Mike Budenholzer opted to move to the bench amid the team's struggles.
Now, after the move, trade speculation surrounding Phoenix and Beal have picked up steam as the 19-19 Suns prepare to make roster move before the NBA trade deadline in February. However, while the team seems content on moving off of Beal, reports around the league suggest that team''s around the NBA are uninterested in taking on the 31-year-old's loaded salary.
Suns in tough spot after trade for Beal backfires
With three years left on his deal, Beal is set to make $50 million in '24/'25, $53 million in '25/'26 and $57 million in '26/'27. In addition to his steep contract, the Florida product also holds the leverage in any potential deal with a no-trade clause included in his five-year deal that he originally signed with the Wizards in 2022.
Beal holds the cards and the Suns are struggling to find any way out of the commitment they made when they landed the guard hoping to build a championship caliber team.
That said, it feels safe to say the Suns' brass can admit that trading for Beal was a mistake.