The Phoenix Suns have agreed to a buyout of guard Bradley Beal, per ESPN’s Shams Charania.
Beal will reportedly join the Los Angeles Clippers on a two-year, $11 million deal with a player option after he clears waivers.
The decision for Beal to take a $13.9 million cut on his buyout allows the Suns to waive and stretch the amount left on Beal’s contract — worth $110 million over two more years — to be paid out over five years (double the length of the contract, plus one year).
It helps the Suns get out of the first and second apron that has kept them from being able to do the following:
- Aggregate multiple outgoing player salaries in any trade
- Send out cash in a trade
- Allowed to use trade exceptions in signings
- Use a mid-level exception to sign free agent/s ($14.1 million for non-taxpayer or $5.7 million for taxpayer)
- Use a biannual exception to sign a free agent
Beal’s departure marks the second big move in a roster makeover by new general manager Brian Gregory, who replaced James Jones at the beginning of May. Phoenix already traded star forward Kevin Durant in a record seven-team agreement that saw the Suns acquire Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks, No. 10 overall pick Khaman Maluach and five second-round picks.
As a Sun over two years, Beal averaged 17.6 points, 3.3 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 1.1 steals per game while shooting 50.5% from the field and 40.7% from 3-point range.
That type of production for the third banana alongside Devin Booker and Durant sounds fantastic on paper but the numbers lie to a tremendous extent.
The Beal acquisition will go down as one of the worst in the history of Valley sports, a giant swing and gamble by the Suns front office at an affordable third star on the trade market that never jelled with his teammates and derailed their flexibility due to his no-trade clause and bloated contract.
It was the final dagger for the Suns to make any major roster adjustments in the Durant era.
Bradley Beal’s disastrous 2 years with the Phoenix Suns
Beal’s tenure in Phoenix will be defined as a failure for two primary reasons: his health and his inability to fit in.
The Suns traded for Beal in June 2023 from the Washington Wizards, giving up Chris Paul, Landry Shamet, four first-round pick swaps and six second-round picks. Phoenix was facing a summer in which it felt like at least one of Paul or Deandre Ayton had to go in order to change the team dynamic, perhaps both. The options were limited given the low trade value both players had, with Beal serving as a solution. Shamet was salary filler, while the swaps and seconds are a major loss in hindsight.
Beal, Booker and the Suns all spoke confidently about how the relationship would work on the floor without a “natural point guard” and instead the two switching off initiating offense. The primary issue across two Suns seasons was that Beal could never stay healthy long enough for the two of them to figure out that rather complex chemistry, one that never clicked into place.
The injuries began immediately before Beal could even make his debut.
A nagging back problem popped up midway through training camp, forcing Beal to miss 19 of Phoenix’s first 22 games. He then twisted his ankle three games in, and after returning and locating a rhythm, he broke his nose and had to play with a mask. Ten games in, during which Beal again looked like an effective player beginning to figure things out, he tweaked his hamstring and needed to sit for five games.
That is when the turn of the new year of 2024 came, a date when Phoenix decided to more strictly define a role for Beal, declaring him the “point guard” of the team.
This clearly affected Beal’s play, giving him indecision about how often to be a pure facilitator and how often to be an aggressive scorer. His field-goal attempt volume dropped, and his style didn’t rival anything from his D.C. days beyond his rookie season.
Beal, one more time, grasped a flow and went on a flurry in the final five games of 2023-24, averaging 26.8 points per game to help Phoenix secure an automatic playoff spot, only for the Suns to get swept in four games by the Minnesota Timberwolves. In the sweep, Beal did a better job than remembered defending Anthony Edwards and scored 28 points in Game 3 before a Game 4 performance that was probably the worst game he’s ever played in the NBA.
In the lead-up to the 2024-25 season, Beal said his only goal for the year was to have fun. He did not have a checklist of potential accomplishments, unlike previous years. With the Suns signing point guards Tyus Jones and Monte Morris, he said he could just focus on being himself.
Beal’s body, however, completely failed him.
While Beal the season prior missed 29 games, it was over four lengthy gaps, so he was able to rack up spurts of 24 and 23 games straight across the final 52 games. This past year, Beal had 11 different pockets of time he missed for a total of 28 contests on the sidelines, not counting him sitting for the meaningless finale. The most games in a row he played was 14, the only double-digit streak.
There were over a half-dozen ailments Beal dealt with, from hamstring to knee to ankle to elbow to calf to toe. When Beal did play, his energy was mostly positive. He did, though, have his fair share of performances when he looked completely disengaged. These outings suggested all the trade talk was interfering with his desire to compete and were a factor in Phoenix’s criminally poor effort in the little areas that made it massively underachieve.
Given the spotlight that shined brightly on Beal all season, he was in no position to perform like that without massive scrutiny coming his way, nor take moments to clarify how he was in control of his own situation.
In December, legitimate reports began picking up steam that disgruntled Miami Heat star Jimmy Butler wanted out — and more specifically, that Butler wanted to come to Phoenix. That left Beal as the only logical piece that would be going to back to Miami in a trade. But Beal’s trade value was a major negative at that point due to his contract, no-trade clause and unavailability.
During all of this, as the Suns’ 10-2 hot start to the year quickly fizzled into a 15-17 record at the start of the 2025 calendar year, Beal was moved to the bench. He played well in the role initially before once again getting hurt, and after his first game as a reserve for Phoenix, said postgame that he refused to be a distraction.
Beal was later asked about the report that Phoenix moved him to the bench in order to disgruntle him and force him to waive his no-trade clause. Part of his response included that he “holds the cards,” a reference to his no-trade clause.
Reporting frequently indicated Beal didn’t have much interest in leaving Phoenix. It framed the inability for the Suns to 1) find a team that would take on Beal, and 2) have that be a team Beal would be OK with going to. The circus included two different instances of Beal’s agent going to the media and telling them that Beal and the Suns hadn’t even discussed the no-trade clause.
The trade deadline came and went without a Beal deal — and instead led to the Suns moving to find a trade for Durant — all while his trade value continued to crater as the injuries multiplied.
In March for an ESPN feature on the Suns, Beal once again referenced the clause.
“I’m still playing in the NBA, I still have the best job in the world, and I still have my no-trade clause,” Beal said. “So I’m smiling every day.”
It is difficult to imagine that not angering some members of the Suns front office. It sure angered the fanbase.
Beal will certainly have appeal on the open market at the right price. When healthy, he has shown he’s a very efficient scorer and shooter who is still agile enough to compete on defense. He is by all accounts a well-liked teammate with his light-hearted nature.
The question is how much money he will be able to get when the team signing him knows it can’t rely on him to stay healthy.
