Reflecting on the Suns trading for Bradley Beal and what went wrong

Reflecting on the Suns trading for Bradley Beal and what went wrong

I mean, and we’re still waiting for some resolution. There seems to be people in the know that are following this from contract minutia and and basketball business related standpoint that it makes more sense for this to happen July 15th. Whether or not Bradley Beal is waiting to find his next destination, being able to work that out, uh, and that’s got to be the first step before he agrees to the pay cut leading to the buyout from the Suns remains to be seen. So, today could be the day. It might not be. This thing has lasted way longer than we thought it would, but going back to it, it’s impossible to think, and I know there’s a lot of Suns fans that will point at the Kevin Durant trade as the death nail for that version of the Suns, and that was the final nail in the coffin, was making a deal of that magnitude. We don’t have much proof that that was actually the case. Quite honestly, even if you’re down on Kevin Durant’s time, and it’s hard not to be here because of the results or lack thereof of his time in a Phoenix Suns uniform, you got eight games of Kevin Durant without Bradley Beal in the regular season. And then you got two playoff series and they looked formidable in the eight regular season games and those two playoff series until injuries happen. And then the Suns followed that up by using Amalhassen’s uh terminology, getting the shiny object in Bradley Beal. And that’s where we are. Yeah. It’s uh it’s easy to say now and and a lot of what he said there was was right, but some of that is also hindsight. Absolutely. Again, like when you say like, “Hey, you made this deal and the upside was limited and the downside was tremendous.” Well, the Suns didn’t think the upside was limited and a lot of people didn’t think the upside was limited. Everybody knew that he played the same position as Book, but a lot of people were just convinced that Booker could play the one and you’re adding a a 27 point per game score in an off season where you had really no opportunities to add a player of that caliber. They had a they had to work a Bartlestein relationship and a no trade clause on Beiel’s end and an expiring Chris Paul contract to bring in a four-time all-star. So the Suns at the time were looking like, hey, this is an opportunity to add another great player. Not the best positional fit, but Book can play the one and away we go with our big three. Yeah. So some now obviously it failed miserably. Also, I understand that even if we So yesterday we’re saying like all the things they ignored, the injury history, the positional fit, the no trade clause, the contract, all that stuff. Just the general idea is did the Suns need to take that big a swing at that point and bring in another superstar or were they that close enough to just make some tweaks? Well, they weren’t. I don’t think they were close enough because you really, you talk about a topheavy team. You had Booker and Durant. Aton was in limbo. Chris Paul was on his way out the door. They didn’t trust him anymore, especially come playoff time. that pretty much figured he was beyond the twilight of his career in terms of being a high productive allNBA caliber point guard. And again, using your term hindsight, and I don’t mean to cut you off, but what I what I can’t get past in all of that in the pursuit. Now, when I really look back, I was in favor of the deal and mostly it was based on the Chris Paul factor. They had lost trust in him, his ability to stay healthy in a postseason run. But then you trade him for a player with a much more vast injury history than Chris Paul had at double the salary, more than double the salary. That that was obviously a gigantic misstep. It’s and Jared has brought this up multiple times and he’s dead right. Like they just never thought of the downside. What if this doesn’t work? No, you could look back and say, “Well, maybe you try it, but you get him to wave that no trade clause before you do it because we need a we need a parachute here in case this doesn’t work.” I I think in the in the minds of Matt Ishp and Josh Bartlestein, this not working. Well, it’s not a possibility. Was not a possibility. No, may not win the championship, but we’re going to be hell on wheels to beat in the playoffs. Smad Ishbia started off after the Beal acquisition and they made the trade to send to Portland and they got Grayson Allen and they got Yousef Nerkage. That media day was started by him saying we have the best team in the NBA. There was an extreme confidence coming off of that team after that deal. Frank Vogle was the head coach was asked at media day about handling, you know, personalities and talent and his response was, “I’ve done this before. I know what I’m doing.” That season didn’t go well and they won 49 games. Looking back, that was obviously far better than the second crack. And we don’t know. I mean, I guess we have some idea what this buyout is going to look like when it does happen. And I think people are getting a little bit antsy now because it is taking this long. Uh, and you know, Bradley Beal’s fit obviously didn’t work in Phoenix. And that’s another learning lesson to NBA teams who wanted to lean into positionless basketball and you may still buy into that theory, but skill set basketball still matters. And when you have that level of overlap and we’re paying a player like Bradley Beal that kind of money, you know, he’s going to get playing time and that overlap derailed everything you were trying to do. I agree with Amino Hassan. I think Bradley Beal is a good basketball player. I don’t think he’s worth the contract he got, but credit to him and his agent for getting that from the Washington Wizards once upon a time. But now moving forward, people are asking, well, where does he fit? Just as recently as yesterday, Jason McIntyre on Colin Cowardd’s national show said the words out loud, “If Bradley Beal ends up on the Lakers, that makes them the favorites to win a title.” Well, he I mean, he don’t know what the hell he’s talking about on anything. So, let’s start let’s start with that. There is that Beiel’s there’s the positional overlap that was a big issue here in Phoenix. But also now you go back to Washington. To me I agree. I think Bradley Beal when he’s on the court is a pretty good basketball player. He’s better than Jaylen Green who they’re essentially replacing them with this season. I don’t know if he is. I don’t know. I don’t I I don’t know. I mean that’s maybe that’s a matter of opinion. I don’t know. I don’t know if I totally agree with that. But again, let let’s just say this though. Jared Beal’s biggest problem is he doesn’t play. He misses 30 games a year and sometimes there’s big chunks and sometime sometimes they’re small chunks. But I’ve heard Kellen Olsson talk about this and I totally agree. It’s the small chunks can be just as detrimental to the to the team and to him as missing the big chunks because you just never get into a rhythm. You never get into a flow and that is so important in the sport of basketball. 12 or 13 separate occasions last year he missed time. 12. It was that many times. And you know Jared’s asking the question or bringing up the point, is he as good as Jaylen Green? Well, Jaylen Green is available. He’s played 82 games in two straight years. And yes, there is still a ton of positional overlap between Green and Booker, but the skill sets are more different, a little bit more vast. Jaylen Green gives you, you know, an explosiveness and and an athleticism that Bradley Beal didn’t. And also, Beal is who he is by now. Jaylen Green’s. Yeah. Ceiling is still is still up there. So, I would agree. Um, yeah. So, we’re still waiting. We’re on be watch day a zillion. Thanks for watching Bickley and Marada. Click to see the latest Bickley blast and hit the button in the middle to subscribe to Arizona Sports.

Bickley & Marotta, with Tim Ring filling in for Dan Bickley, break down the Bradley Beal trade and how everything went wrong for the Phoenix Suns.

Subscribe to the Arizona Sports daily newsletter: https://bit.ly/3QWcj1x

Read articles from Arizona Sports: https://arizonasports.com/

Download the Arizona Sports app: https://arizonasports.com/the-arizona-sports-98-7-fm-app/

Sign up for texts from Arizona Sports: https://arizonasports.com/text-alerts/

Listen live to Arizona Sports: https://arizonasports.com/listen-live/

Watch live: arizonasports.com/watch-live

Follow the team: https://bit.ly/3R0PIAJ

ARIZONA SPORTS SOCIAL MEDIA

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ArizonaSports/

X: https://x.com/azsports

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@arizonasports987

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/arizsports/

ARIZONA SPORTS PODCASTS: https://arizonasports.com/category/podcasts/

Video: Felisa Cárdenas and Jeremy Schnell/Arizona Sports