Suns Hope Trading Kevin Durant Improves Bradley Beal's Offensive Production

Post #1 » by **RealGM Wiretap** » Mon Jun 16, 2025 3:04 pm

The Phoenix Suns continue to struggle to find teams willing to entertain taking on Bradley Beal and the two seasons at $111 million remaining on his contract. The Atlanta Hawks and Washington Wizards were the only teams with even mild interest in Beal at the trade deadline. Any deal would also involve Beal waiving his no-trade clause.

The Suns internally have some level of hope that trading away Kevin Durant will allow Beal to slot into a bigger offensive role that allows him to play closer to his contract level.

During the Suns' head coaching search, candidates were asked how they could try to get the best out of Beal if he remained on the roster.

In 53 games last season, Beal averaged 17.0 points, 3.3 rebounds and 3.7 assists while shooting 49.7 percent from the floor and 38.6 percent on three-pointers. Beal's PER has dropped from 19.8 during his last season with the Wizards to 16.3 in 23-24 and to 14.9 last season.

Via Jake Fischer/The Stein Line

CaHgO · Post #2 » by **CaHgO** » Mon Jun 16, 2025 3:41 pm

Last chance for him to prove he's not an overpaid washed bum.

SkyBill40 · Post #3 » by **SkyBill40** » Mon Jun 16, 2025 4:19 pm

Trading Durant isn't going to change anything significantly for Beal. He's redundant to this team and the desire is to move Booker back to SG where he belongs and excels. That means either Beal plays the point or small forward, and he's not cut out for either.

Bottom line here is that we're still stuck unless we can get him to accept a trade but, seeing a recent post and/or communication from him to the Suns front office, he and his family love it here and have no desire to move away. So... we're screwed and will be until his contract runs out seeing that no team is going to come calling for his services.

akula1488 · Post #4 » by **akula1488** » Mon Jun 16, 2025 5:11 pm

Suns should trade both Booker and Durant to start the rebuild. Take on bad salaries that align with Beals and as many as draft capital as possible

CaHgO · Post #5 » by **CaHgO** » Mon Jun 16, 2025 6:06 pm

akula1488 wrote:Suns should trade both Booker and Durant to start the rebuild. Take on bad salaries that align with Beals and as many as draft capital as possible

Pretty obvious for everyone but Ishbia.

Pickled Prunes · Post #6 » by **Pickled Prunes** » Mon Jun 16, 2025 10:49 pm

CaHgO wrote:
akula1488 wrote:Suns should trade both Booker and Durant to start the rebuild. Take on bad salaries that align with Beals and as many as draft capital as possible

Pretty obvious for everyone but Ishbia.

It really doesn't matter unless they can get their own picks back. The chances are pretty low that they get a pick or player back in a Booker trade that turns into a better player than Booker. Booker is a bird in the hand and the draft is too hit and miss.

Yes, Booker was the 13th pick in the 2015 draft. The other players in that draft were KAT... and 58 other players you wouldn't even consider trading Booker for. I mean, the goal of getting a bunch of picks is to hopefully land a player like Booker, so if he wants to stay you keep him. The same goes for the Giannis situation. MIL could get 10 picks and there is almost no chance they get a player like Giannis. If they are willing to play through the rebuild, you keep these guys!

Pickled Prunes · Post #7 » by **Pickled Prunes** » Mon Jun 16, 2025 10:58 pm

CaHgO wrote:Last chance for him to prove he's not an overpaid washed bum.

He's overpaid. (You can't disprove the truth!) But he isn't washed or a bum. If he was making $25m every team in the league would be calling. His two seasons in PHX were two of his three most efficient scoring seasons. If his FGA's go up his "offensive production" will improve.

basketballwacko2 · Post #8 » by **basketballwacko2** » Tue Jun 17, 2025 6:37 am

Pickled Prunes wrote:
CaHgO wrote:Last chance for him to prove he's not an overpaid washed bum.

He's overpaid. (You can't disprove the truth!) But he isn't washed or a bum. If he was making $25m every team in the league would be calling. His two seasons in PHX were two of his three most efficient scoring seasons. If his FGA's go up his "offensive production" will improve.

Beal's contract is horrendous at $53.6 million and $57.1 million it's probably the worst in the NBA. Add in his NTC and the fact that he says he won't waive it and it's like being in a box.

They could do a tear down and start over but giving up those picks for KD really puts them "In a box."

Post #9 » by **TheCage4** » Tue Jun 17, 2025 2:14 pm

The Suns will need the assets acquired from trading KD to unload Beal, because there is no improvement coming with Booker playing the exact same position.

Pickled Prunes · Post #10 » by **Pickled Prunes** » Tue Jun 17, 2025 8:36 pm

basketballwacko2 wrote:
Pickled Prunes wrote:
CaHgO wrote:Last chance for him to prove he's not an overpaid washed bum.

He's overpaid. (You can't disprove the truth!) But he isn't washed or a bum. If he was making $25m every team in the league would be calling. His two seasons in PHX were two of his three most efficient scoring seasons. If his FGA's go up his "offensive production" will improve.

Beal's contract is horrendous at $53.6 million and $57.1 million it's probably the worst in the NBA. Add in his NTC and the fact that he says he won't waive it and it's like being in a box.

They could do a tear down and start over but giving up those picks for KD really puts them "In a box."

You just said half of what I said, but you said it louder. :lol:

The other half of what I said is: "He isn't washed and he isn't a bum." You can't evaluate a players production based on their paycheck. OK, so they have a good player getting paid like a great player. As you say, they are in a box. Their choices are to either give up on him and send him home or squeeze every bit of juice they can out of him. Situation matters. A new coach with different teammates is a new situation. I expect he'll put up around 22/5/5 this season. That's not a $53m player, but those are solid #2 numbers.

basketballwacko2 · Post #11 » by **basketballwacko2** » Today 5:25 am

Pickled Prunes wrote:
basketballwacko2 wrote:
Pickled Prunes wrote:He's overpaid. (You can't disprove the truth!) But he isn't washed or a bum. If he was making $25m every team in the league would be calling. His two seasons in PHX were two of his three most efficient scoring seasons. If his FGA's go up his "offensive production" will improve.

Beal's contract is horrendous at $53.6 million and $57.1 million it's probably the worst in the NBA. Add in his NTC and the fact that he says he won't waive it and it's like being in a box.

They could do a tear down and start over but giving up those picks for KD really puts them "In a box."

You just said half of what I said, but you said it louder.

The other half of what I said is: "He isn't washed and he isn't a bum." You can't evaluate a players production based on their paycheck. OK, so they have a good player getting paid like a great player. As you say, they are in a box. Their choices are to either give up on him and send him home or squeeze every bit of juice they can out of him. Situation matters. A new coach with different teammates is a new situation. I expect he'll put up around 22/5/5 this season. That's not a $53m player, but those are solid #2 numbers.

If the suns did tear down and trade off KD and Booker then keep Beal he might start putting up big numbers again. If you're not competing it's fine to pay him because you have to make the Salary floor, but if you tear down and you have traded away you #1's you kinda look the Nets after that infamous trade with Boston.

Pickled Prunes · Post #12 » by **Pickled Prunes** » Today 8:54 pm

basketballwacko2 wrote:
Pickled Prunes wrote:
basketballwacko2 wrote:

Beal's contract is horrendous at $53.6 million and $57.1 million it's probably the worst in the NBA. Add in his NTC and the fact that he says he won't waive it and it's like being in a box.

They could do a tear down and start over but giving up those picks for KD really puts them "In a box."

You just said half of what I said, but you said it louder.

The other half of what I said is: "He isn't washed and he isn't a bum." You can't evaluate a players production based on their paycheck. OK, so they have a good player getting paid like a great player. As you say, they are in a box. Their choices are to either give up on him and send him home or squeeze every bit of juice they can out of him. Situation matters. A new coach with different teammates is a new situation. I expect he'll put up around 22/5/5 this season. That's not a $53m player, but those are solid #2 numbers.

If the suns did tear down and trade off KD and Booker then keep Beal he might start putting up big numbers again. If you're not competing it's fine to pay him because you have to make the Salary floor, but if you tear down and you have traded away you #1's you kinda look the Nets after that infamous trade with Boston.

They don't need to trade anyone for Beal to produce more. He's efficient, he just needs more shots. If a team is going to try and put together a "Big 3" they need to run schemes that highlight all three. It also helps if one of the big 3 doesn't need a lot of shots to be effective. KG, Bosh and Love all meet that requirement. Still, both Bosh and Love took heat for their scoring numbers dropping because they came in as volume shooters. It's just math, somebody's numbers are going to drop. Beal was the odd man out, but he was still efficient and was not the reason PHX crumbled.

PHX crumbled because watching KD, Booker and sometimes Beal play "your turn/my turn" was as predictable as the sunset. Simply put: They were defensible and they couldn't defend... That's not a one man problem, regardless of how many zero's they see on their checks.