Bradley Beal is PERFECT for Clippers after Norman Powell trade + Bucks GREAT option for Suns guard

Bradley Beal is PERFECT for Clippers after Norman Powell trade + Bucks GREAT option for Suns guard

What’s up, guys? Thanks as always for supporting the show. It would mean a lot to me if you would take a second to scroll down and hit that subscribe button so you don’t miss any more of our videos. Also, make sure you follow us all over social media so you don’t miss any of our content or show announcements. So, all the reporting is that Bradley Beiel is potentially going to reach a buyout with the Phoenix Suns as soon as today. So, obviously, we’ll keep an eye on that over the next couple of days. It’s been reported that he’s canvasing the league looking for potential options. So, what kind of team makes sense for Bradley Beal to join? I thought most of the issue for Bradley and Phoenix had to do with redundancy. His strengths lined up with the things the Suns were already great at, and his weaknesses lined up with the things Phoenix actually needed him to be good at. If you take a look at the numbers, they weren’t bad. Availability was an issue. He only played 53 games in each season, but his production was there. 18 points per game as a third option. That’s fine. 51% from the field, 41% from three, 81% from the line over the two years. That’s 60% true shooting. He was very efficient. He shot 43% on unguarded catch-and-oot jumpers. He was a knockdown catch andoot guy. He shot 43% on pull-up jump shots, so he had the ability to hit shots off the bounce. He was efficient at the rim, 66% overall according to Synergy, 64% on layups. The volume wasn’t there, but a lot of that had to do with usage as well. But it was still fine and he was efficient when he got there. His shot creation was fine. He was a 62nd percentile pick and roll creator according to Synergy. A 72nd percentile ISO creator according to Synergy. He was up over a point per possession. 1.01 points per possession in ISO including passes. That’s a really solid number. And yet in both years, the Suns were actually a better team when he was off the floor versus when he was on. They were 1.4 points better per 100 possessions when he was off the first year. 7.1 points per 100 possessions better without him last year. Why is that? Because Bradley Beal over the years in Washington had built out the habits that many lead guards in NBA history have built out. He was a capable defender. He can make some plays, but he wasn’t used to the incredible possession to possession, attention to detail that you need from a roleplayer guard whose job it is to do those things. When I would watch Phoenix tape, Bradley Beal was often the culprit in their defensive issues. He’d ball watch and get back cut or he’d lose a shooter off the ball or he’d give up an offensive rebound or he’d miss a rotation. He’d have good reps on the ball because he’s such a good athlete, but it wasn’t consistent there possession to possession. And on a team that couldn’t rebound and couldn’t protect the rim, that was a problem. There wasn’t the requisite athleticism behind him to clean up those mistakes. Now, it’s typical for a basketball team to have on the team on the floor some guys that aren’t necessarily great with dirty work. That’s somewhat normal. But usually the other three guys or four guys or two guys or however many it is on the floor, usually those guys are professional dirty work players. And Bradley Beal just added another guy who could handle a lot of offensive responsibility except for he wasn’t getting the ball all that much and it just meant one less guy on the floor who specializes in dirty work. And then Phoenix exacerbated the issue by bringing Taius Jones into the mix. And it was just too much for those guys to overcome. Tyus Jones, Bradley Beal, Kevin Durant, and Devin Booker. That forsome literally had a negative net rating last year for the Phoenix Suns. For Phoenix, this is actually a big part of why I could see them being a more feisty, tougher regular season team to play against. They’ll now field a team with some professional dirty work guys like Dylan Brooks, like Ryan Dunn, with a substantially better center rotation. Now, Devin Booker and Jaylen Green don’t represent the best core of shot creators in the world, but that team should be more balanced. That doesn’t mean they’re going to go win a playoff series or anything, but on the nights when Jaylen Green plays well, the Suns are going to be a pain in the ass to beat because of that balance finally being restored. So with Bradley Beal soon to be a free agent, what kind of team makes sense for him? So this would be a team that doesn’t need him to be a primary point of attack defender that has the rim protection and rebounding to make up for some of his offball lapses and that could actually make use of his high volume ball handling. There are actually a few teams that make sense here, but we got to start with the obvious one. We had a trade this morning. The Jazz, the Clippers, and the Heat engaged in a three-team deal. Sends Norman Powell to Miami. They’ve been in desperate need of some reliable scoring punch off of Tyler Harrow. Norm is a really nice option for them there. Kevin Love and Kyle Anderson in a second round pick to the Utah Jazz. And then John Collins to the Clippers. And suddenly with Norman Powell’s exit, a gaping hole in that scoring guard spot next to James Harden. So now the Clippers suddenly make a ton of sense as a Bradley Beal team. They have plenty of interior size and rebounding and rim protection that can cover for some of Bradley Beal’s offball mistakes. They’re suddenly like very deep. They have an excellent power forward center rotation now. Even in bench groups, if Bradley Beal is playing with bench groups, Brook Lopez can help in that specific way. And now they’re really light on ball handling. You have Kawhi Leonard who played 37 games last year and James Harden. Bradley Beal is almost the perfect type of player for this situation because when Kawhai is out of the lineup, which he’s obviously going to be at minimum for 20 probably 30 or 35 games this year, Beal can scale up his usage and basically play as the secondary ball handler off of James Harden. And then when Kawawaii is healthy, the Clippers can benefit from all of the offensive stuff we talked about earlier. Again, offense wasn’t the issue with Brad in Phoenix. I read you guys the number. He was a 504 80 guy. He was efficient driving uh closeouts in spot-up situations. When he put the ball on the floor to run action, he was fine. Offense wasn’t the issue in Phoenix. He will be able to help the Clippers in that way. But at the same time, they have the size and the rebounding and the rim protection to cover for him. And when Kawhi Leonard steps out of the lineup, he can step into that featured role on the ball and do an admiral job of that. In other words, they could benefit from Bradley Beiel’s strengths and they can withstand his weaknesses. So, I think the Clippers make a ton of sense. They don’t need him to guard the other team’s best player. Chris Dunn and Derrick Jones Jr. can do that. And frankly, given Kawhai’s injury history, it doesn’t make any sense for the Clippers to move Norman Powell unless they know Bradley Beal is coming. So, I’m guessing this ends up happening sooner than later, but again, it’s not confirmed yet. Other teams that have been brought up that I’ve heard talk about Miami, but obviously that doesn’t make a ton of sense now that they have Norman Powell. Uh, we’re looking at big physical teams that need ball handling. Orlando makes some sense. Houston makes some sense. Like Bradley Beiel next to KD in Houston makes some sense in a way that didn’t back in Phoenix. Boston could use some shot creation. They don’t have the means with which to make up for Bradley Beiel’s weaknesses, but they don’t really have championship goals at this point. If more would just be bringing him into the system and seeing how the fit works. Milwaukee, this is another one that I’ve been thinking about a lot this morning. It’d be a tough sell for Beal. I I don’t think they can offer him as much money, but this is a team in Milwaukee that desperately needs his ball handling. Like, he could literally step in the front door and be in the Damen Lillard role. He could walk right in as the lead shot creator off of Giannis. And Brad’s in a similar situation to what we talked about with DeAndre Aton where, you know, he’s a guy puts up big numbers and has kind of some of some splash surrounding his name, but there’s obvious impact metrics that kind of undercut his value over the last couple of years, which again, I think a good amount of that has to do with fit, but the reality is those numbers exist. And so Beal’s kind of a distressed asset at this point going into a a a place in Milwaukee where he’d have a very good chance to make a conference finals run at minimum if not a finals run to play alongside one of the best players in the league in a featured day one I’m leading this team from the perimeter type of role like that makes a lot of sense to me in Milwaukee. I haven’t heard buzz there, but that that I would argue if I was Bradley Beal, I’d ra I’d rather go play in Milwaukee than play in uh Los Angeles with the Clippers. Substantially tougher conference. Like Bradley Beal goes to the Clippers, there’s still a just as likely chance as not that they get eliminated in the first round. Again, you look at the top of the West, if if it ends up being a Oklahoma City and a Houston and a Denver, if you fall to 6, seven or eight, you’re going to be an underdog in the first round. So, like I look at Milwaukee as a really, really seamless option for Brad. I don’t know. I don’t know if he’ll seriously consider it. Again, I just don’t think you make the Norman Powell deal if you’re the Clippers unless you feel like Bradley’s coming. So, I I would be shocked if he doesn’t end up with the Clippers at this point, but Milwaukee makes a lot of sense for me as well.

Jason discusses the details of Bradley Beal’s upcoming buyout from the Phoenix Suns, why the Los Angeles Clippers make sense after trading Norman Powell and leaving some scoring missing from the James Harden and Kawhi Leonard group, and why teaming up with Giannis Antetokounmpo on the Milwaukee Bucks would also work for Beal.

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