Last offseason, Washington Wizards star Bradley Beal was one of the hottest names on the Golden State Warriors’ wishlist. Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green reportedly even advocated for the Warriors to give up their two picks in the 2021 NBA Draft for the player. However, no deal came to fruition.
ESPN’s Brian Windhorst has said that Beal refused a trade offer to the Warriors, saying he “didn’t want to go” to Golden State to join Curry and his squad.
“Before last season—now granted, they didn’t know if they had a championship team, they know now they do—they kicked the tires on Bradley Beal,” Windhorst said Wednesday on The Dan Patrick Show.
“[The Warriors] were like, ‘Hey, could we do a deal for Bradley Beal?’ But Beal didn’t want to go.”
Beal misses championship title with Warriors, but signs major deal
As a result, Beal did not participate in the Warriors’ fourth title in eight seasons. Golden State defeated the Boston Celtics 103-90 in TD Garden.
Nevertheless, the Wizards announced earlier this month that they increased the star guard’s deal to five years, keeping him in Washington until the 2027- 28 season for $251 million.
The new contract is almost the most expensive of all time in NBA history, just behind Nikola Jokic’s five-year, $264 million deal with the Denver Nuggets in June.
The contract includes a no-trade clause, which is rare in NBA history. There have been only nine players whose contracts included no-trade clauses before Beal, and no active player has it in their contract.
Ten Leonsis clearly wants to keep Beal on the team. He described his relationship with Beal to be as close as with Washington Capitals superstar Alex Ovechkin. Had the Wizards trad Beal, it could take the team years to find someone of his caliber, making it hard for the Wizards to get to their current strength.
Furthermore, Beal has spent ten years with the Wizards after being drafted third overall in 2012 out of Florida. He has appeared on three All-Star teams and was named to the third team in 2020-21.
In just 40 games last season, Beal averaged 23.2 points, 6.6 assists, and 4.7 rebounds. In February, he underwent season-ending surgery on his left wrist.
He has overall career averages of 22.1 points, 4.2 assists, and 4.1 rebounds in 645 games (611 starts) with Washington.
Beal will be reunited with Kristaps Porzingis, whom the Wizards acquired in a February trade with the Mavericks after Beal’s season was cut short due to a left wrist injury.
If he stays in Washington for the duration of his new contract, he will be with the team for 15 years. The question is whether or not that devotion will make the following five years more fruitful than the previous ten.
After signing the deal, Beal said he wanted to continue etching his name into the team’s archives. On the Wizards’ all-time scoring list, he is only 1,320 points behind Elvin Hayes.
“I want to win a championship and I want to do it here,” Beal said Friday in a press conference.
The Wizards can now concentrate on their other summer goals, especially enhancing their defense and shooting. After finishing 12th in the Eastern Conference with a 35-47 record in the 2021–22 season, they will be trying to make another playoff appearance.