Bradley Beal expected to sign $248 million deal to remain with the Washington Wizards
If you didn't see this coming you haven't been paying attention to the NBA in recent years. Players first sign for the absolute max, and then if they so desire they demand a trade. Teams that try to resist giving into the players' trade demands always end up caving in. The 76ers lasted the longest with Ben Simmons this past season, but of course ended up giving in.Bradley Beal is reportedly expected to re-sign with the Wizards on a $248 million extension 💰 https://t.co/mZbK2oWRrb
— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) June 26, 2022
$50 million a year is way too much money to be paying Bradley Beal for his thirties and if the Wizards are smart they will trade him and rebuild properly as soon as they can. The Wizards would have been wiser to trade Beal last season.
In terms of the Celtics, I always knew they had no shot at Beal unless they had the ability to clear max cap space. The threat of Beal signing in Boston, so the Wizards should trade him now for something rather than lose him for nothing only worked if Boston had the cap space.
Every move Stevens has made since re-signing Marcus Smart and Robert Williams to extensions to trading for long term contracts in Derrick White and Daniel Theis has shown that the Celtics did not plan to have cap space.
Green Target: Dejounte Murray https://t.co/RNe1JuBbo7 pic.twitter.com/JRT3xrVwuZ
— CelticsLife.com (@celticslife) June 26, 2022
I think the Boston front office thought about the idea of creating cap space for this summer, but then realized it was too risky, especially since they could end up with nothing.
I for one would be glad if the Beal rumors would finally be put to rest, but I fear if the Celtics get off to a slow start this season, they'll rear they're ugly head once again.
For the umpteenth time, the Celtics are MUCH better off with a younger Jaylen Brown making half of what Beal makes. Now time to go all-in for the much younger and less expensive Dejounte Murray!