Is Bradley Beal the next disgruntled star?
We don’t know if he’s disgruntled in Washington, but he fits the bill of a star who should be with his elite production and lack of wins, so let’s ramp up the trade machine and look at a few scenarios.
The Brooklyn Nets have “internally discussed” ways of acquiring Wizards guard Bradley Beal, according to Stefan Bony of the New York Daily News. Now that is some really strange news isn’t it just?
Why would a team leak that they’re internally discussing ways to get a star via trade? They run the chance of pissing off the other party if they weren’t as open to it being out in the media, their players feel as though they might be traded and it’s just generally a whole lot of attention that can just be avoided.
Beal’s agent, Mark Bartelstein pushed back on the reports, telling Forbes that the shooting guard won’t be traded to Brooklyn or anywhere else.
While Bartelstein doesn’t have ultimate control over whether his player gets traded or not, he does have something to gain here. Beal is currently in the middle of a two-year, $72 million max extension he signed last October and if he sticks with the Wizards until the 2022 season, he will reach the famed ten years of service and be eligible for a supermax extension, and that’s a lot of money.
So there’s a very big financial incentive for Beal and his agent to remain in Washington, and the team doesn’t look like they want to trade him, he’s averaging 30 points per game with six assists and is the best scorer on a sneaky-good offence.
When using Cleaning the Glass’ filters to remove garbage time minutes, the Wizards are 15th on offence and dead last on defence.
So the Nets leaking that they’re at least looking for ways to acquire the guard could push other teams in the same direction and start a bidding war. If the Wizards front office sees an offer worth taking, why wouldn’t they?
Let’s hit that trade machine and get theorising:
Brooklyn Nets
There’s no better place to start than with the team that may start it all.
The most likely trade package I see is centred around Spencer Dinwiddie, Caris LeVert and Rodions Kurucs. Brooklyn doesn’t own their own first-round pick this season and the best pick they can include is Philadelphia’s 2020 first-round pick and a handful of seconds, the best being Atlanta’s 2021 unprotected second-round pick.
Brooklyn does this to create a big three of their own with Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant and Beal, probably one of the best one-through-three grouping in terms of three-point accuracy and volume.
KD has proven he can play alongside two high-volume shooters in Golden State with Steph Curry and Klay Thompson and while Beal has become a better distributor when John Wall sits, it’s not like he demands the ball all the time, making Kyrie happy.
If you’re Washington, this trade gets you a look at LeVert who has put up over 17 points this season with four assists and rebounds with a very exciting 38 percent clip from three. John Wall can sleep easy at night knowing that his two-guard is paid less than he is and Dinwiddie can slot into his current role as the first guard off the bench who can play with either LeVert or Wall.
I’ve left Jarrett Allen out of this hypothetical trade as, without him, the Nets would be looking at a centre rotation of Deandre Jordan and not much else and the Wiz already have Thomas Bryant who is, if not the centre of the future, at least the centre of the next few seasons.
Golden State Warriors
One of the major criticisms of the Brooklyn deal is that there isn’t much high-end future talent. The Wiz would be moving on from one of the best scorers in the league without at least hope of recouping someone of that level.
The Warriors currently own the worst record in the league and have the highest chance at getting the number one overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft. President of basketball operations Bob Meyers recently told NCB Sports Bay Area that the team will “consider” trading the pick, even if it falls at number one overall.
A deal involving Andrew Wiggins and their own first-round pick works straight up.
I won’t sit here and write that the Wizards get to look at what Wiggins can be because I think that ship sailed a while ago, but they’d be getting a guaranteed top-five pick for their troubles.
If a bidding war starts and the Warriors really want to outbid the field, they can throw in Eric Paschall, the soon-to-be 2019/20 NBA Rookie First Team recipient (damning with faint praise).
The Wizards would go from LeVert (25 years old), Dinwiddie (27) and Kurucs (21 but career 6.8 points per game) and Philly’s pick which is currently 20th to Wiggins (25), Paschall (23) and a pick between one and four. It’s pretty clear which sounds better.
Do the Warriors do it?
The Athletic’s Anthony Slater reported that Wiggins was brought in to be the starting small forward next season, not just matching salary for the next star. That’s a bummer.
But for argument’s sake, let’s say they did make the trade. They’d be down a rotation piece in Paschall with three max players in Steph, Klay and Beal plus Draymond Green’s $22.25 for next season. How do you fill out a competitive roster with only minimums plus whatever the COVID-19 pandemic takes away from the salary cap?
Denver Nuggets
In a recent episode of The Deep Two NBA Podcast, we spoke with Adrian Gonella on the Denver Nuggets this season and their prospects moving forwards. We spoke about this Tim Connelly regime not wanting to skip steps and grow naturally.
This involves not making trades that would push forward the team’s current trajectory like a Bradley Beal or Jrue Holiday trade.
But holy hell. Imagine seeing Nikola Jokic post up and Beal and Jamal Murray running a beautiful off-ball action to either cut to the rim or flare out for three.
Sadly (and happily), the Nuggets have made Murray and Michael Porter Jr. untouchable in trade discussions and a deal involving Will Barton, Gary Harris and some late first-round picks doesn’t exactly scream star trades.
Sacramento Kings
“If stupidity got us into this mess, then why can’t it get us out.”
That’s a quote from American film actor Will Rogers. You may know him from Judge Priest (1934) or Steamboat Round the Bend (1935) or you may not know him at all until I searched ‘stupidity’ in brainyquote.com.
The Kings have been big game hunting for a few seasons now and we all know how that has gone.
How about this; Marvin Bagley, Cory Joseph and their own 2020 and 2021 first-round picks for Bradley Beal.
After a lacklustre first season with Luke Walton, the Kings went from a promising situation with young talent to a bit of an awkward place. They’re kind of on the treadmill of mediocrity but only De’Aaron Fox looks like a bona fide All-Star and maybe not even a top-tier one at that.
I’m worried that Bagley’s value will only continue to go down. He gets a bit of a free pass for this season after suffering a few injuries, but if he isn’t the next Amare Stoudemire, what can he be? The next Taj Gibson?
If Bagley spends another year injured or not living up to his high draft slot, this trade doesn’t exist.
Washington gets two future first-round picks and they could even swap out the 2021 first for a later one (similar to how the Clippers and Rockets have sent away most of their future picks). On top of that, they get two more rookie scale years of Bagley and salary filler in Joseph.
This could be completely stupid, but Fox, Beal, Harry Barnes, Nemanja Bjelica and Richaun Holmes with Buddy Hield and Bogi Bogdanovic off the bench (or traded for better fits) may be a better lineup than the Kings’ trajectory right now.
Food for thought.
The Nets trying to pry open the Beal trade war is a smart move if they want to get the Wiz in the mindset of trading the guard. Unfortunately, they might not have the best possible offer but it might not matter if they’re the only ones bidding. Time will tell.
