Bradley Beal Going to the Suns Doesn't Move the Needle Much
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Bradley Beal and the Wizards are finalizing a trade to the Suns for Chris Paul, Landry Shamet and three second round picks and pick swaps. The Wizards will also send a few other players to the Suns, but Beal and Paul are the big names here. I already wrote about where I think CP3 should go next. Today I want to talk about Beal's fit with the Suns.
On paper it appears that the Suns have a coveted "big three". Beal will soon be teamed up with Kevin Durant and Devin Booker. Deandre Ayton is still a Sun for now. Josh Okogie will fill out the starting five. But, on paper, this looks like a very good, very high octane offense. The Suns now have a ton of firepower. They could score in bunches. Those three will be hard to defend. Booker and KD are solid defensively. Ayton, when engaged, is a very good pick and pop guy and an okay rebounder. Okogie is, probably, the best guard rebounder in the NBA. And Frank Vogel can coach up some defense.
The accolades stop there for me on this trade. The Suns now have three ball dominant scorers. KD has proven he can play off the ball and spot up if need be, but he is best with the ball in his hands. Booker has learned how to be a true scoring guard playing next to CP3 the past couple seasons. But when Paul went out in the playoffs last season and they let Booker run the show, he got a taste of being the main guy with the ball in his hands. And he seemed to enjoy it. He was the only Suns player who really showed up against the Nuggets, and he played well running the show. And Beal, ever since John Wall got hurt and then traded, has not had to share with anyone on the Wizards. Kristaps Porzingis didn't need to handle the ball. Kyle Kuzma is best suited as a spot up shooter. Johnny Davis couldn't get on the court. Deni Avjida was much more of a defender than anything else. Beal got to do what he wanted when he wanted in Washington. And he produced points, a lot of them, but not too many wins. The Wizards were a purgatory type team, but Beal was getting stats. Now he is going to a team that wants to win. In fact, I think the Suns need to win. This is a team that has title aspirations and they don't want to flame out in the postseason again. But how well will these three guys share the ball remains to be seen. Also, Ayton will be looking for touches too. I also do not like the injury history. Beal would play a decent amount of games for the Wizards, but any time any little thing would flare up, he'd sit. KD cannot stay healthy. He always seems to get hurt and miss 20 plus games now. Booker is coming off two seasons that have been cut down due to injury. And Ayton is soft as they come. The Suns will also have to scrounge for a bench. They only have five guys under contract. Those five players are KD, Booker, Ayton, Cam Payne and Bradley Beal. And they all make a good chunk of money. The Suns are going to have to settle for mid level guys, vets looking to ring chase and G League guys. And if the big stars get hurt, those types of dudes are going to have to play real minutes against the best the NBA has to offer. Just ask the Clippers how that worked out for them last season. Injury risk should be of very high concern in Phoenix.
All in all the trade was going to be made. The Wizards got a solid guy in Shamet, I'm sure they will waive CP3 and picks. But compared to a trade like Rudy Gobert last season, the Wizards didn't get nearly as much. They are clearly going to rebuilding mode and it makes sense for them to get off this contract. The Suns, they might be stuck. They might not get the reward they are searching for with this trade. They may have to settle for 4 or 5 seeds for the foreseeable future. I'm not as jazzed for this deal as I thought I was going to be when Beal eventually did get traded. But the Suns will be fun to watch when all these guys play together. They just might not be that dominant.
Ty
Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing, the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast, and the greatest basketball writer on the internet.