The Washington Wizards brought to an end the Bradley Beal era by shipping him off to the Phoenix Suns on Sunday. No one was shocked that Beal was traded, but the haul they got in return for him sure was a surprise.
The Suns only had to give up Chris Paul, Landry Shamet, and multiple second-round picks to go with some pick swaps for a star like Beal. It was quite underwhelming and a fan compared it to the haul the team had managed to get for Russell Westbrook.
Russell Westbrook went for:
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope
Montrezl Harrell
Kyle Kuzma
Multiple seconds
1 First Round Pick
Bradley Beal went for:
Chris Paul (38 years old)
Landry Shamet
Multiple seconds
Multiple pick swaps
New leadership in that room is showing.
— 𝘾𝙤𝙖𝙘𝙝 𝙎𝙝𝙪𝙗𝙝 ⁶𓅓 (@OVOLakeShow) June 18, 2023
The Wizards had a big change at the top earlier this year after Michael Winger became the President of Monumental Basketball, which granted him full leadership of the franchise. It does look like a terrible move under his leadership here, but the situations certainly are different.
Westbrook’s 2020-21 season had seen him average a triple-double yet again, with averages of 22.5 PPG, 11.5 RPG, and 11.7 APG. His stock was still very high, while Beal had another injury-hit season in 2022-23, averaging 23.2 PPG, 3.9 RPG, and 5.4 APG in 50 games.
While they both had huge contracts, Westbrook’s was going to expire two seasons after the trade. Beal, meanwhile, is owed over $207 million in the next four seasons and that is not a contract a lot of teams would want to take on. Beal also has a no-trade clause, unlike Westbrook, which further hurt the Wizards.
NBA Teams Were Shocked By The Haul The Wizards Got For Bradley Beal
All that being said, you’d think the Wizards would have been able to get a bit more than what they got. NBA teams were shocked that the Suns got Beal for basically a salary dump.
One team felt that the Wizards could have just waited for the best deal, as the Brooklyn Nets did with Kevin Durant. What is also interesting is that Beal had not put in a trade request as Durant had done.
The reason why they still were in such a rush to move Beal was revealed by NBA insider Marc Stein. He reported they wanted to move him before any potential Damian Lillard trade limited their options. Considering this kind of haul was going to be enough to land him, you’d think even after a Lillard trade, there’d be plenty of teams that would have made a move for Beal.
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