The Washington Wizards and Bradley Beal stumbled their way through one of the most predictably frustrating star-franchise relationships in recent NBA history. When it finally came to a merciful end on Father’s Day, the general reaction to Washington’s trade foray was a mixture of disbelief, outrage and amusement.
How and why could the Wizards only get Chris Paul, Landry Shamet and zero first-round picks for a three-time All-Star who averaged 30.5 points per game? game in 2019-20 and 31.3 points in 2020-21? The answer, of course, is that Beal – without exaggeration – had one of the most destabilizing contracts in NBA history Before the new collective agreement and its many restrictions were ratified. Overnight, Beal’s deal went from a singularly unappealing compromise to toxic sludge. He is guaranteed $207.7 million through 2027 and also, notoriously, owns a no-trade clause.
Make fun of the wizards all you want. The fact that new president Michael Winger was able to offload that contract without taking back any long-term salary or giving up any of the Wizards’ own draft picks is worthy of applause. Instead, the franchise won pick swaps and second round picks.
Although Beal hasn’t made an All-Star team in two seasons — a span in which he’s missed 74 of 164 games — and is turning 30, most of this analysis is less an indictment of his skills and more a reflection of how devastating max contracts handed out to non-superstars can be under a new economic system that has another tax apron that essentially acts as a hard cap.
Beal is very good and, more importantly, better suited to complement other superstars than exist as the nightly focal point of a great offense. Unlike so many high-volume scorers, he’s malleable: comfortable, dangerous and willing to play the ball as often as he is as a primary decision-maker.
Beal can bend defenses with a lethal and layered dribble handoff game that creates natural openings for his teammates.
Last season, the Wizards generated 1.23 points per game. possession on Beal DHOs, which was 10th out of 98 players who ran at least 200 drives. His pass-and-chase game with Kristaps Porzingis was also effective in the duo’s limited time together. Beal doesn’t stop moving after the first action is completed, which will make it especially difficult to stop the Suns if they don’t force things.
Leaving him open — as Phoenix’s opponents did to Paul and other role players during the playoffs — will never be an option. In the past three seasons, Beal made 39.9 percent of his 3s that were uncontested or lightly contested, according to Second Spectrum.
Before we move on, it’s impossible to understand this trade without a depressing flashback. The goal for the Irish should be Washington’s painfully indecisive approach to moving on from one of the best players in franchise history, not the decision that finally set both sides free.
The Wizards had several options to trade Beal to shore up their future. The first and best came in 2019 at age 25, coming off two straight All-Star appearances and completing back-to-back seasons in which he didn’t miss a single game.
Granted, that’s not the type of player a smart organization cashes in on. But the circumstances were unique; this is not just a case of hindsight being 20-20. That February, Beal’s quarterback partner, John Wall, tore his Achilles tendon at the start of a four-year, $170 million contract extension. Around the same time, Otto Porter Jr., Washington’s other contract holder, was sent to Chicago for Jabari Parker, Bobby Portis and a second-round pick.
Anyone could see that Washington was locked into something rudderless. It had just won 32 games as a mediocre team going nowhere. But instead of going broke, the Wizards and Beal sidestepped logical trade rumors and agreed to kick the can down the road with an awkward two-year, $72 million extension that solved nothing and secured purgatory.
The following year they won 25 games. Then, after they managed to shed Wall’s albatross contract by discarding a first-round pick for 32-year-old Russell Westbrook, Beal made his first All-NBA team and averaged 31.3 points per game. career match in 2020-21. . The Wizards advanced through play-in as an 8-seed before a quick first-round loss to the Sixers.
This again would have been a good time to end a partnership that did not have the capacity to win at the highest level. It’s never a good idea to delay the inevitable, but that’s what both sides chose to do when Beal accepted a five-year, $251 million contract last summer after a 35-win season. He had no All-Star teammates, no promising young teammates, and an annoying owner scared enough to give him a no-trade clause. (Anyone willing to do that can’t build a championship-caliber team. It’s disqualifying!)
The only other players in NBA history to have a no-trade clause are: LeBron James, Kevin Garnett, Carmelo Anthony, Dirk Nowitzki, Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade, Tim Duncan, David Robinson and John Stockton. These are all first-ballot Hall of Famers who can lay claim to being a Top 75 player of all time. And then there’s Beal, who last won a playoff series in 2017, has only made one NBA team and won’t be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. (There was a time when Steph Curry tried to get a no-trade clause from the Warriors. He was not successful.)
Offering that benefit was a disaster currently. Getting rid of it now, regardless of value, was smart—before it became more damaging under the new CBA in a league full of teams that wouldn’t even consider absorbing it for nothing.
Without that anvil hanging around their neck, Washington’s new front office can start from scratch, with a ton of cap space — perfect for absorbing unwanted salary — and all of their own draft picks, including the No. 8 pick later this week. (They owe a top-12 protected first to the Knicks next year, who are top-eight protected in 2026, but it’s safe to assume the Wizards won’t be good anytime before then.)
By design, Washington will be extremely bad next season. But it finally also has a certain direction and organization-wide focus. Trading Beal was less about what Washington could get back to kick-start a needed rebuild and more about ripping the Band-Aid off an entire era and finally giving itself an opportunity to start over.
When you haven’t shown any self-awareness for a decade, it’s almost impossible to win or lose a trade like this. What matters is that the Wizards finally did it, four years after they should have. In a vacuum, the return was far from ideal. No one argues that it isn’t. In reality, though, it’s refreshing, a salve and something of a miracle considering what it took for everyone involved to get here.