Bradley Beal - Part IV

[CobraCommander]

I hope fans turn on Beal and Ted.

Let them have each other because I'm sick of both.

I don’t blame Beal for negotiating an amazing - scratch that- MVP caliber contract-

Ted..turn on him..

.but what was Beal supposed to do? Give a team with no chance to win a discount so they can waste the cap space on someone else that won’t help them win?

Beal asked for the world...I bet even he is surprised he got everything he asked for....

[DCZards]

You folks who think Zards fan are going to boo Beal like they did Juwan are living in the past. BB has been loyal to DC and a real contributor to the larger community. Most fans appreciate that.

Howard wanted to play for Miami…until the league reversed the signing. Beal is going to get a LOT more rope with Zards fans than Howard did.

And the speculation about Beal’s contract poisoning team chemistry has no real basis,imo.

[TGW]

I hope fans turn on Beal and Ted.

Let them have each other because I'm sick of both.

I don’t blame Beal for negotiating an amazing - scratch that- MVP caliber contract-

Ted..turn on him..

.but what was Beal supposed to do? Give a team with no chance to win a discount so they can waste the cap space on someone else that won’t help them win?

Beal asked for the world...I bet even he is surprised he got everything he asked for....

Yea Beal doesn't owe anything to the Wizards. The management is choosing to be stupid...that's not his fault.

I have way more of problem with the idiotic ownership and GM than Beal. If anyone should be booed when this goes sideways, it's the front office.

[AFM]

How much was Beal really overpaid by? I'm thinking maybe $6 million a year... it's not horrific.

I think nate's analysis had a fair salary at more like 35 million a year.

Overpaid for delivering what? Fair salary for doing what?

What is Brad paid for? He's paid for what he delivers on the court, game after game, over a season.

Two years ago, in 2020-21, he was paid $28m+. Was he worth his salary? Sure! Or close to it anyway. He played at a high level.

Last year, he was paid $33m+. Was he worth his salary? No way. He didn't begin to deliver enough to justify his salary. Not close to enough.

So let's raise that salary by 30 plus percent & guarantee it for another 5 years, with even more raises along the way, right...?

I can’t tell if you’re responding to me or who I was quoting.
But Nate was comparing Beals production to other players in the league and what the market rate is for them. Id find the post but it was from a few weeks ago. Nate can chime in of course but this is all too late anyway.

[doclinkin]

This is worst than anything Grunfeld ever done as GM. Like by far. This will handicap the Gizzards for at least the next half decade. And I don't want to hear that this was strictly Leonsis's decision. By all accounts, the flunkie GM is 100% on board with this, unless someone can show me otherwise.

Clearly, Sheppard took the job knowing that he ranked below Beal in the pecking order. Ted has always said he wants to make Beal a Wizard for life, and two top tier candidates who interviewed for the GM job declined to take it for mysterious reasons, presumably because they lacked full control.

I suppose one can fault Sheppard for taking the job in the first place, but I don't fault him for any bad decisions regarding Beal because he is not the one making those decisions.

Especially given that is was clear that Beal leveraged the ouster of the last GM. Grunfeld might still be here if it weren't for Beal being quoted as saying in effect the stink starts at the top. And there were doubts whether he would take the last extension offered if GMEG were retained.

[payitforward]

You folks who think Zards fan are going to boo Beal like they did Juwan are living in the past. BB has been loyal to DC and a real contributor to the larger community. Most fans appreciate that.

Howard wanted to played for Miami…until the league reversed the signing. Beal is going to get a LOT more rope with Zards fans than Howard did.

And the speculation about Beal’s contract will poison team chemistry really has no real basis,imo.

I think this is 100% correct.

Wizards fans have continued to attend games, watch games on TV, follow their team, care about the franchise & the players for well more than a decade, even though we've been one of the worst in the league during that period -- possibly the worst, come to think of it.... I wonder whether there's another team that's had as bad a record as the Wizards over the last dozen seasons...?

Not only that, but they continue even now -- even though we get worse & worse. In fact, whether the team is good or not doesn't seem to affect their fandom in the slightest.

I'd say Zards is a good example of this fact -- hell, in a sense we all are come to think of it...!

I also agree that Beal's contract won't bother other players. Why should it? Now, if Brad were a bad guy, hard to get along with, whatever... that would be another matter. But, he isn't.

But it does mean that we will not be a good team for the next 5 years -- which, as we have seen, doesn't matter to fans.

This is a capped league. If you give an enormous salary to a guy who just isn't that good -- & Brad isn't; even at his best he wouldn't have merited a supermax based on his play -- then the result is that YOU WILL NEVER BE A GOOD TEAM. EVER.

We already went through this once with John Wall. We had one & only one genuinely good season. Really good, to be sure, but not great. No one would describe 49 wins as "great." This year that would put you in a tie for 10th place among 30 teams.

We won't get to 49 again. In fact, it's hard to see us making the playoffs during the 5 years of Brad's contract. Certainly not R2.

But, as we've seen over the last dozen years that doesn't matter to fans. &, because it doesn't matter to fans, it also doesn't matter to Ted Leonsis.

In short, unlike Bradley Beal, we are getting exactly what we deserve.

[9 and 20]

Juwan Howard was welcomed back to DC as a hero after the contract with the Heat was voided. It wasn't until he wasn't playing like the 23 and 7 guy and the Bullets started losing that the booing started.

If Beal plays like last year instead of at the 30-5-5 level, I don't think it will be all that long until we start hearing some boo's. Especially if the team is also garbage (which it probably will be because Wizards).

[doclinkin]

At this point, I hope we just trade Beal for Westbrook and a top 55 protected 2nd round pick. We've got to get him off this team. This dynamic of Beal having more power than the coach and GM is going to kill all team chemistry for the next 5 years.

No fear, there is a much greater than zero chance that Beal misses large chunks of those 5 years. His ideal playstyle has been legislated against in the new defensive rule set, and it is as likely as not that he will be in danger of injury while driving directly at the teeth of the defense trying to live up to his contract. The skills that got him paid are the very ones that put him in harms way in this new rule set. It is hard to have much power when you are sitting on the bench in street clothes, even when you are collecting dollar signs by the microsecond.

[doclinkin]

The one thing that to me IS a significant risk is his wrist. My daughter played tennis at a high level in high school and injured her wrist and... that was the end of her tennis "career". I read somewhere else that there's like a 25% chance that a wrist injury like Beal's may not heal right. Let's hope that never happens.

It's his non shooting hand, so it might endanger his handle on that side, but not his jumpshot. That jumper was endangered more by John Wall's injury that forced Beal to play on the ball the majority of the time instead of as a secondary scorer whose job was to distract defenses by constant off ball action working to get open.

There is a chance Beal regains this skill set playing across from Porzingis, and in a system Wes devises to re-energize this part of his game. To me Beal being forced off the ball may actually enhance his game and prolong his career. For whatever that's worth. (Which is still likely significantly less than 50m a year).

[NatP4]

It’s a pretty optimistic take, but I envision a role in which Beal moves back to off ball/spotting up, coming off pin downs, far less direct ball screen/primary initiating action. The offense will run through Porzingis, and Avdija will make a big leap to become a guy that you can throw the ball to and let him create secondary offense.

I still think Davis will be a star lead guard in the NBA and be able to operate as a primary offensive option, which is something we really haven’t had since prime John Wall (and Westbrook for half a year). Davis was a guy that could handle top shelf usage against big time competition, with absolutely no NBA talent on his team. He absolutely can be “the guy”. He might be inefficient for the first couple of years while the jumpshot develops and he evolves his game/range, but he’s going to be a legit lead guard.

What would really help on top of all of this, is having a legit 3&D off ball wing. We don’t have that on this roster. A guy like Mikal Bridges. Someone that you can’t cheat off of, and a guy that understands floor spacing and how to launch up a high volume of 3s.

In that role, I can easily see Beal being a solid positive player for the next 3 or so years at 29/30/31. 32&33 are when the decline sets in and that contract looks terrible, but hopefully he can still be averageish and a good mentor to Davis.

[trast66]

Since Ted’s majority ownership started in June 2010, the Wizards have the 21st best winning percentage in the league. I’d expect that to hold over the term of Brads contract. Ernie and Tommy are willing collaborators and just as guilty as their owner.

[ozthegap]

It’s a pretty optimistic take, but I envision a role in which Beal moves back to off ball/spotting up, coming off pin downs, far less direct ball screen/primary initiating action. The offense will run through Porzingis, and Avdija will make a big leap to become a guy that you can throw the ball to and let him create secondary offense.

I still think Davis will be a star lead guard in the NBA and be able to operate as a primary offensive option, which is something we really haven’t had since prime John Wall (and Westbrook for half a year). Davis was a guy that could handle top shelf usage against big time competition, with absolutely no NBA talent on his team. He absolutely can be “the guy”. He might be inefficient for the first couple of years while the jumpshot develops and he evolves his game/range, but he’s going to be a legit lead guard.

What would really help on top of all of this, is having a legit 3&D off ball wing. We don’t have that on this roster. A guy like Mikal Bridges. Someone that you can’t cheat off of, and a guy that understands floor spacing and how to launch up a high volume of 3s.

In that role, I can easily see Beal being a solid positive player for the next 3 or so years at 29/30/31. 32&33 are when the decline sets in and that contract looks terrible, but hopefully he can still be averageish and a good mentor to Davis.

This will never happen. Beal never even allowed Dinmwiddie to be a voice in the locker room last year he’s not going to give the primary offense role to someone else and play off ball. Hell they barely deferred to Paul Pierce.

[9 and 20]

Much respect to everyone on here with the optimistic takes. The Wiz don't make it easy to not go full Eeyore.

There is definitely some talent on the roster and if things break the right way for us, and maybe more importantly if things break the wrong way for teams above us, I can see maybe a top 6-8 seed.

Beal has the opportunity now to lead this group so it's basically all on him - he's paid the most and he's got just as much weight with the owner as the GM.

[9 and 20]

At this point, I hope we just trade Beal for Westbrook and a top 55 protected 2nd round pick. We've got to get him off this team. This dynamic of Beal having more power than the coach and GM is going to kill all team chemistry for the next 5 years.

No fear, there is a much greater than zero chance that Beal misses large chunks of those 5 years. His ideal playstyle has been legislated against in the new defensive rule set, and it is as likely as not that he will be in danger of injury while driving directly at the teeth of the defense trying to live up to his contract. The skills that got him paid are the very ones that put him in harms way in this new rule set. It is hard to have much power when you are sitting on the bench in street clothes, even when you are collecting dollar signs by the microsecond.

Dumping Beal after half a season is probably not going to happen. It happened with Dinwiddie but he was a hired gun. Terd basically welcomed Beal into the Leonsis family. Even Mayo got step-cousin status.

It's also funny that the best hope for Beal not destroying team chemistry is that the billion dollar man is sitting on the bench in street clothes.

[gambitx777]

Or Beal come I like he did the season before last and plays really well.

Sent from my SM-G991U1 using RealGM mobile app

[nate33]

Or Beal come I like he did the season before last and plays really well.

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Even if he plays at his peak level, he isn't worth that contract. But at least he will be a top 15-20ish player. Most will say, "he's not really worth the contract, but that's the cost of doing business in the NBA". This is the best case scenario, and it's not very good. Maybe we get to a 6th seed.

I expect worse. I expect a little better than last season, but substantially below his peak 2-3 seasons ago.

[Wizardspride]

Brad is Ted's son....

[Wizardspride]

Much respect to everyone on here with the optimistic takes. The Wiz don't make it easy to not go full Eeyore.

There is definitely some talent on the roster and if things break the right way for us, and maybe more importantly if things break the wrong way for teams above us, I can see maybe a top 6-8 seed.

Beal has the opportunity now to lead this group so it's basically all on him - he's paid the most and he's got just as much weight with the owner as the GM.

Obviously Brad is overpaid but like you, I also think there is some decent talent on this roster.

Just gonna sit back and see how things unfold.

[Frichuela]

Or Beal come I like he did the season before last and plays really well.

Sent from my SM-G991U1 using RealGM mobile app

Even if he plays at his peak level, he isn't worth that contract. But at least he will be a top 15-20ish player. Most will say, "he's not really worth the contract, but that's the cost of doing business in the NBA". This is the best case scenario, and it's not very good. Maybe we get to a 6th seed.

I expect worse. I expect a little better than last season, but substantially below his peak 2-3 seasons ago.

Brad better play like a top 15s-20 player or I'll be one of those booing him (and Terd) at the arena this season. No more excuses Brad!

By the way, just listened the Matt Moderno podcast on Brad's NTC and he was fuming. And take this from someone who was on the resign Brad (for the max) bandwagon before. I believe the average's fan patience with Beal is gonna be limited so he better hit the ground running..

[WallToWall]

Or Beal come I like he did the season before last and plays really well.

Beal has nothing left to play for. He already got paid + benefits. TL has made it clear that this will not be a championship contender, so that cant be one of Beal's goals. What do fat cats do when they've become fat? Look around the league for previous examples.