The Washington Wizards and Bradley Beal have been in multiple rumors within the past few months about the two sides parting ways.
Within those past months the Wizards and the Celtics were in talks about obtaining Beal, for future assets.
After a quick spark of trade rumors that would send Beal to the Celtics, the trade winds died down before the trade deadline.
The Wizards have been very quiet in the offseason due to their situation with cap. Both Beal and Wall take up most of the teams salary, and with Wall being injured the Wizards have been out of playoff contention.
This has caused a rift between the all star guard Beal and the Wizards. As other teams have been making big moves to get better the Wizards have shown no movement in the direction of regaining their status in the Eastern Conference.
It came out recently, that the Wizards are not confident that Beal will sign an extension with the team this coming season.
Reported by ESPN, it seems that Beal and the Wizards could be departing from one another sooner than later. Beal is worth a lot to many teams, as he provides tremendous offense and has proven to be a great facilitator for an absent point guard; such as when Wall was out dealing with injuries.
Beal averaged 25.6 points and 5.5 assists last season on shooting percentages of 48% from the field and 35 percent from three.
According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Beal being a two time all star, the Wizards will offer a 3-year, $111 million dollar extension by July 26th which is the first day that teams can start extending players.
Beal’s camp said that he will not accept the deal right away, and will wait until he makes a decision on whether or not he wants to stay with the team.
If Beal declines this extension, or accepts the extension for financial purposes than demands a trade, the Boston Celtics will once again be apart of a group of teams looking into acquiring the all star guard.
First reported by Fansided, and later talked about by WEEI’s Dante Turo on twitter, a trade rumor surfaced that the Celtics would send the house to the Wizards for Beal.
Here is what the trade looked like.
Wizards would receive:
- Marcus Smart
- Jaylen Brown
- Romeo Langford
- Memphis 2020 first round pick (top-6 protected)
- Bucks 2020 first round pick (Top-7 protected)
- Celtics 2021 and 2023 unprotected first round pick
Celtics would receive:
- Bradley Beal
At first glance, many fans would see this trade as highway robbery. This rumor is in clear favor of the Wizards, as not only would they get two solid starters with potential to become borderline all stars, but they would receive four first round picks, one of which could land in the higher part of the lottery.
Now, looking at this trade would help the Wizards rebuild for their future very quickly, but Celtic fans would not give up on players such as the likes of Smart and Brown.
Most fans also do not want to see that Memphis pick go to waste. Beal is an extraordinary player, and will definitely help the Celtics go the extra mile.
However, losing two of the Celtics best perimeter defenders who still have tremendous potential to become better NBA players for a pure offensive guy would not fit the Celtics culture.
Brad Stevens built the culture around the half court system, and with defense. Adding Beal would be great for the Celtics but a different trade would have to happen. With that being said here is what I would do if the Celtics were interested in Beal.
Wizards would receive:
- Grant Williams
- Gordon Hayward
- Semi Ojeleye
- Celtics 2021 and 2023 unprotected first round picks
- Bucks 2020 first round pick (top-7 protected)
Celtics would receive:
- Bradley Beal
- Two future second round picks
Although this trade may seem very lopsided in favor of the Celtics, this allows the Wizards to clear up salary cap within a year.
Not only would they receive three late round pick in the first round, but they will receive a prospect in Williams who has looked amazing in the summer league, and will have Hayward who could resign for a cheaper deal after the season is over, if not they can not resign him and clear up some cap space to sign a big name free agent in the next offseason.
Clearing cap room is a major outlook for the Wizards at the moment, as they can only sign a select pool of players.
Trading Beal could result in a complete rebuild and dumping as much cap space to regain all their salary cap would be their best bet in retaining their status in the Eastern Conference.
The Celtics are not the only team that is interested in Beal.
Teams such as the Knicks, Lakers, Raptors, Pistons, Bucks, and Magic have all shown interest in a player like Beal to help bring them over to the next level.
With all this being said, I will not count out the idea of Beal giving the Wizards another chance to build the team around him.
With Wall being injured, the Wizards might try to dump Wall instead of Beal so that they can build around the younger and healthier player in Beal.
If this is done, I can see Beal signing the extension, as the interest to have his own team would be satisfying for the guard.
To keep the all star guard around and happy the Wizards will have to hire a new general manager, and will need to find players to compliment Beal instead of Wall. Dumping Wall’s massive contract will be extremely hard to do, as he is owed a supermax for four more years, even though he has been injury prone the past two years and has hardly played. But if the Wizards do manage to get rid of Wall’s contract without absorbing more money, they should find themselves in a great position to keep Beal happy for the long term.
