Bradley Beal is one of the most coveted players available in the 2022 free agency market. While there are possibilities of Kyrie Irving hitting the open market as well, the situation with Bradley Beal has built over many years now, with his ability to become a free agent being valued due to his desire to be on a competitive team.
The Washington Wizards are trying to do whatever they can to make sure Beal continues to be their franchise centerpiece, but the lack of playoff berths in recent years has to be a massive bone of contention between team and player. Considering the Wizards can offer Beal a massive contract no one else can, he may be incentivized to stay with Washington.
Beal has a $36 million player option on his contract this season. If he declines it, he can sign a 5-year $248 million extension this off-season and get one of the biggest contracts in NBA history from the same team that paid John Wall years ago. Michael Scotto of HoopsHype is already reporting that Beal is set to decline his player option and either sign a new contract with Washington or leave the franchise.
Source: Wizards star Bradley Beal will decline his $36.4 million player option for the 2022-23 season and become an unrestricted free agent this summer, @hoopshype has learned. More on Beal’s future, Bobby Portis, Nicolas Batum, and others in the story. https://t.co/sT8KU2qBUr
— Michael Scotto (@MikeAScotto) June 22, 2022
Beal is a special offensive talent, but whether he can be a number one option on a team is still something that is up in the air.
He hasn’t been able to make the Playoffs on his own but made it the one year Russell Westbrook was on the team and doing a lot of work to help lead the team through a season revival in the second half to make it into the post-season.
The decision is completely on Beal, who said recently that he already knows what he will do, but hasn’t revealed it to the public. Considering he has already seemingly denied the HoopsHype report on Twitter, this situation is going to get more interesting as we approach NBA Draft and trade season in the league.
