The trade from the perspective of someone who covers the Wizards two years later.
Because of the vast changes in the two franchises since it may feel like longer, but it was just two years ago when the Phoenix Suns officially shipped out Bradley Beal, Jordan Goodwin and Isaiah Todd to the Washington Wizards in exchange for Chris Paul (who later turned into Jordan Poole), Landry Shamet, second-round picks in 2024, 2025, 2026, 2027, 2028 and 2030, first-round pick swaps in 2024, 2026, 2028, and 2030, and cash.
Since the trade, the Wizards have had one of the league’s worst records as the team begins their rebuild while the Suns have been one of the NBA’s biggest disappointments, getting swept in the first-round by the Minnesota Timberwolves in the 2023-2024 season and finishing this past season 36-46, missing the playoffs and play-in tournament entirely for the first time since the 2019-2020 season.
With today being the official two-year anniversary of the deal, Bright Side reached out to one of Bullets Forever’s lead reporters Greg Finberg to hear how he views the deal, lessons the teams learned, and how team building has evolved with the new CBA rules.
(The following answers have been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.)
Do you think the Suns should regret trading for Beal?
Greg Finberg: They went for it, which I’ll always respect. I think they gave up a little too much, especially considering they had none of their own firsts and they kind of drained themselves of assets. So I think maybe in asset management, I would have done something different. But in terms of the trade, like, I can’t sit here and say that, that I wouldn’t have done it, they made a move to go all in around a core that they felt comfortable in. And so I would have done that. Now that we can talk about the moves they made after, because I think they kind of fumbled from there. But in terms of the trade, like, I have no gripes about I think Phoenix wanted to try to win, and they made a move that just didn’t work.
What do you think the Beal trade and its results showed about team building around star players’ influences? It’s well reported that both Durant and Booker advocated for Beal to be in Phoenix.
GF: LeBron kind of started this, basically saying, like, Hey, I’m here. I’m the best player. You’re going to basically do what I say. And so I think people say it’s a player’s league now, and the players have been empowered to kind of do that. I mean, Bradley Beal basically ran the Wizards and the guy wasn’t even considered in the stratosphere of a number one, maybe even a number two option in the league, and he was kind of pulling the strings. Basically every move the wizards made, apparently went through Bradley Beal.
So it all revolves around players, whether they deserve it or not. I just think that it doesn’t really work out when you hear that a player is forcing their way to a certain team to play with guys. The nets are a good example. Like, Brooklyn maybe didn’t want to trade for James Harden, but Durant and Kyrie were like: you need to do this. And so they did it, and they gave up all those assets for him. And honestly, if he stayed and they weren’t, broken up by their own personal gripes, they possibly could have won and beat the Bucks if they didn’t get hurt. If they ran it back, they could have done well, but Harden forced his way out. Then Kyrie got traded to Dallas because of the vaccine and all that stuff. So like, sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn’t, but I just, I’ve never been for that type of player empowerment, like you’re getting paid millions of dollars to play basketball, I think you should allow the GM to do their job, and if they want to run stuff by you, fine, but they shouldn’t be in there demanding we need this player and leading this player. And I don’t know if that’s what happened in Phoenix, but, but at a certain point, I think you got to kind of let each player do their role in and because players will get mad when coaches overstep.
A lot of Suns fans have been disturbed by Beal’s attitude in Phoenix, should Suns fans be surprised by his behavior or did he display similar tendencies in DC?
GF: I’ve never made $500 million. I probably will never make $500 million, but it probably changes your perspective. He has a family. He’s got three kids and a wife.
He would always get frustrated on the bench and he’d show his frustration in the media, but you couldn’t feel bad for him because he chose this, he chose to stay in DC all of those years because the money was right. And so I think, you can’t fault him, but he’s a guy that values money and values family, and then he probably values winning. That’s not to say he’s going out there and not giving his all, but he’s getting paid regardless. And it’s just kind of, do you want it? It’s the Kobe mentality thing. Kobe was making millions and millions but he didn’t care, he wanted to win basketball games. That’s all he cared about. And that’s kind of gone away from the league, especially with all the guaranteed money. But it was frustrating for Wizards fans at times, because you just sit there and Bradley Beal would be moping about how the team can’t guard a parked car, confused on what he should do out there after scoring 52 back to back games and losing. Like, maybe Beal could have asked for a trade, maybe show some signs of actually wanting to win, because it’s not going to happen here. And he never did it. So you couldn’t sit here as a Wizards fan and feel bad for him, because he chose the money. And if you’re going to choose the money on a bad team in a bad situation, then that’s your fault for not winning.
Devin Booker has been with the Suns for more than 10 years and dealt with a lot of losing, but no one would say these things about him. What do you think is the difference?
GF: Homer syndrome, for sure. It took Wizards fans the years of Beal to finally come around and say, you know, we’re done. We’re tired of it. Something needs to change, because this team’s never going to be good with him getting paid 50 million as their number one option. I think it’s different. Booker led them to the Finals as the best player on the team, Bradley Beal never, never led the team. Well, I guess in 2020 when they made the playoffs as the eight seed alongside Russell Westbrook. They made a couple of second rounds and almost made the conference finals, but no semblance of true like title contention, and so it’s probably different with Booker. And I just think for Suns fans, if the struggles continue to happen for like, let’s say, two, three more years, and Booker is supposed to be doing more and he’s not, then maybe they’ll get a little fed up
He wants to figure it out in Phoenix. And that’s rare, and I think Suns fans respect that, but Wizards fans did with Brad as well, wanting to be in DC. It only goes so far, though. The frustration starts to build. I think Booker has had a couple more years to go before that frustration kind of boils over, and a trade becomes evident.
What do you think the drama with Beal’s contract says about who deserves no trade clauses?
GF: Bradley Beals Agent Mark Bartelstein is a bandit. I don’t know how he gets his contracts paid, like he does, but Bradley Beal has made so much money, and deservedly so he’s been good, but a lot more than he should have. And I think Mark knew Washington was in a bind. And he took advantage of the fact that they cornered themselves pretty much like the Suns did, but they didn’t trade him and he was going to enter free agency and then he did and they realized if they lose him they’re. starting from zero. We have no real other assets to do anything, and he knew that, and so Washington kind of panicked and allowed themselves to get played, and gave him five years, $250 million. That’s fine. You kind of understood that. But the no-trade clause was crazy.
Washington threw all leverage they had out the door the second they gave him that no-trade clause. That’s only something you give to a guy like LeBron that you know I’m never going to trade you like unless a crazy day comes. Other teams knew he had a no trade clause. It was down to three teams, and they kind of screwed themselves with the no trade clause. I think they just kind of got taken advantage of by Beal and his agent because they knew Washington knew Washington had nowhere to go.
I think it was a bluff. Like, I don’t think Beal would have left. Nobody else could have offered him that much money. And it was pretty clear that Bradley Beal wanted to stay in DC. He wants as much money as he can get, and they just kind of did too much that never needed to happen.
What do you think the Suns’ super team failure shows about how team building should look for the next five to six years with the new CBA?
GF: Cap sheets are so important. The Thunder’s cap sheet is one of the cleanest things I’ve ever seen. LSGA is getting paid a lot of money, but they have a bunch of young guys on cheap deals, like Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren are still on rookie deals, and they paid Lou Dort what he was worth. Like he’s getting paid good role player, starter-level money. They had the ability to pay Isaiah Hartenstein because they have so many of their great guys on rookie deals. And so they’re capitalizing on this, and you see how great it’s panned out for them. And eventually they’ll have to pay Jalen Williams the super Max. I’m sure they’ll have to give Chet a max too. And they gotta find a way to pay all these guys. But that’s what the draft is for, to kind of recycle some of the guys you might not be able to afford. And that’s the way that the league is going. And I think the sun’s cap sheet was just a cluster.
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