The Washington Wizards are reportedly finalizing a deal to send Bradley Beal to Phoenix in exchange for Chris Paul, Landry Shamet, and draft picks. According to ESPN, the deal could take a few days to be finalized, partly to allow for the Wizards to recruit a third team to take Paul.
Karalis’ take:
Obviously, the first thing to address is that Boston was barely sniffing at a Beal trade. That's not a surprise, but it also is a signal that Celtics brass believes the championship formula is already on the roster. They clearly don’t see the need for anything more than supporting moves (or financially motivated moves to deal with the new CBA).
The good news is that Beal didn’t go to Miami. Beal might be declining some, and he’s always a risk to miss a good chunk of time, but he was also pretty efficient in his 50 games last season. His 55.1% effective shooting was his highest in six seasons. His true shooting percentage was 59.3%, second best of his career. He’s the kind of scorer Miami could really use over the long haul.
Would he have won them a championship? I doubt it. Would he have made Miami better and a much tougher out? Absolutely, and I think Boston is better for avoiding that next season.
Phoenix is going for it with a high-powered offense, pairing Beal with Devin Booker and Kevin Durant. Maybe with Paul and Monty Williams gone, DeAndre Ayton can find some footing with all the space he’ll get with this offensive firepower.
I don’t know what they’ll be defensively, other than probably not very good, but they will spend the regular season trying to outscore everyone. Booker stepped up in extended time without Paul last season and Durant is obviously still playing at an outrageously high level, so Beal comes in with no pressure to be anything but a third option. Booker has pressure to be the primary distributor, which could take away from some of his scoring, but that's where Beal’s presence can make up for that.
Maybe a bigger question is how Phoenix fills the gaps. Beal’s contract is massive, and this move pushes them past the super-tax line for the next few seasons, so that means guys like Cam Payne, Terrence Ross, Torrey Craig, Damion Lee, et. al., are going to have to step up. Phoenix will have nothing but minimum contracts and very restrictive trade rules to add some support for their big guns.
Does this push Phoenix past Denver? I’m not so sure it does, but it probably gets them closer. Ultimately, Paul was becoming too unreliable health-wise, so moving on from him makes sense. Considering his injury history, you might be able to spin this as basically Shamet for Beal. So if Suns ownership is willing to pay the tax and the front office is willing to play by the tough new rules, then good luck to them all.
There will be another team in the mix for Paul. He’ll help in some ways, but his time in the league is near an end. He has the fire and the ability when he’s healthy, but he’s just never healthy.
This is definitely a blockbuster and it could push Phoenix deeper into the playoffs, maybe even to the Finals. From their perspective, it had better, because they don’t have a financial way out. The Suns are going to be a CBA test case moving forward.