This year’s stunning NBA trade deadline was the busiest in league history. There were 63 players dealt in the week leading up to Thursday, including eight All-Stars. Ironically, one of the most important players along the way was one who stayed put: Bradley Beal.
By all accounts, the Phoenix Suns were desperate to move Beal in a deal for Jimmy Butler, but the bulky contracts involved and second-apron restrictions made negotiations difficult. And that was before taking Beal’s no-trade clause into account, which allowed him to control his fate.
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In the end, the Suns missed out on Butler, who went to the Golden State Warriors, and were resigned to making moves around the margins. Now, as the dust begins to settle, we’ve learned just how limited their options were with a potential Beal trade. According to Ramona Shelburne and Brian Windhorst, there were only two teams willing to take on Beal’s money. Via ESPN:
Of all the teams Phoenix canvassed, sources said only the Washington Wizards and Atlanta Hawks would consider taking on Beal if he’d waive his no-trade clause to go there. The Suns clung to that hope for weeks, hoping that if they could improve their package to incentivize these teams to participate, and other trades the Wizards and Hawks were working on fell through, then maybe there would be a path to a deal.
Even then, there was still the matter of whether Beal would waive his no-trade clause and accept the trade.
The Wizards, of course, are the team that sticks out here. Again, it’s unclear if Beal would have accepted such a deal, but it would have been a fascinating turn of events if the Suns ended up sending him back to his original team less than two years after the trade that brought him to Phoenix.
Beal, the No. 3 pick in the 2012 NBA Draft, spent the first 11 seasons of his career with the Wizards before he was traded to the Suns in the summer of 2023 in a blockbuster deal that sent, among other assets, Chris Paul and four first-round picks to Washington. Surrendering so much draft capital for Beal, who has underwhelmed in Phoenix, is a major reason why the Suns find themselves in the mess they’re trying to dig themselves out of.
As their willingness to acquire Beal showed, the Wizards were happy to take on bad contracts in exchange for future assets. They acquired Khris Middleton from the Milwaukee Bucks, Marcus Smart from the Memphis Grizzlies, Reggie Jackson from the Philadelphia 76ers, and Alex Len from the Sacramento Kings, adding AJ Johnson, Colby Jones, a 2028 first-round pick swap (via Milwaukee), a 2026 first-round pick (least favorable of Los Angeles Clippers, Oklahoma City and Houston) and 2025 first-round pick (via Memphis) in the process.
