Much has been reported and swirled around Bradley Beal’s move to the Phoenix Suns. Bottom line: the move flopped… badly! The Suns finished 36-46 this season, and Beal turned in some of his worst career numbers — 17.0 points, 3.3 assists, and 3.7 rebounds per game.
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Ohh — Mike Budenholzer lost his job, and a few days ago, the Suns traded Kevin Durant to the Houston Rockets. During a recent episode of The Stephen A. Smith Show, Stephen A. unloaded on what Phoenix plans to do this summer. He laid out exactly how far the front office intends to go with Beal.
Smith did not hedge nor stutter: The Suns want Bradley Beal gone! “You got to prioritize getting rid of Bradley Beal,” he said. “Him and LeBron James are the only two people in the entire league who have a no-trade clause, and Phoenix wants him gone in the worst way.”
Smith then leaned into what his sources fed him. “I’m being told that if they can’t get rid of him, they might sit his ass down or pay him to stay home.” That’s not just drastic — that’s pretty brutal.
Phoenix looks ready to take a financial punch just to clean house. And according to Smith, this goes beyond basketball. “They don’t want Bradley Beal on the Phoenix Suns any longer,” he said. “And if you’re Bradley Beal, you’ve got to think about how good that looks for you or how bad that looks for you?”
Beal’s value has cratered — not only because he played poorly this past season but because his contract scared off buyers. Smith hammered the point: “They are paying you over 50 million. They don’t want you, and they can’t give you away for a box of cookies. What the hell is going on? What are you doing that they got them questioning that about you?”
Regardless of the on-court issues (and there were a lot), Stephen A. sees something deeper. He’s questioning Beal’s presence and professionalism, two things that will get one pushed out of any professional basketball, let alone the NBA.
Smith seemingly blamed Beal for jamming the Suns’ options. “There’s no way around this,” he said. “If you know that’s your circumstances and your situation, you’re not in much of a position to play hardball with anybody.” This alludes to claims that Beal blocked several trade attempts this season by flexing his no-trade clause.
Each time Phoenix tried to ship him out, Beal reportedly shut it down. Now, the Suns might shut him down themselves.
Ironically, while not the same, this situation draws eerie parallels to how Beal’s former Wizards teammate, John Wall, got iced out of the league. Wall’s fall came fast — Beal’s might come even faster. The Suns want him gone. The league keeps looking the other way. And Stephen A. sees the writing on the wall, and it doesn’t look good.
