Washington Wizards All-Star guard Bradley Beal has been making headlines of late, as his name has once again been thrown around as one of the hottest prospects on the trading block. A number of anonymous league executives believe that moving Beal at the soonest possible time would be in the best interest of the Wizards.
This report comes from NBA insider Fred Katz of The Athletic:
There are ‘loads of people’ inside the league who believe the Wizards would be better off trading Bradley Beal for young players and picks as soon as they could, per @FredKatz pic.twitter.com/zyZ3EafKNz
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) May 31, 2020




To be clear, the Wizards are saying that they have no intention of trading away Bradley Beal. They want to keep the 26-year-old in the team, with a desire to see him link up with John Wall again once the latter is able to make his much-awaited return next season. The Wizards have been banking on this tandem for years now, but with Beal's recent development, the team wants to give the duo another shot. This could be the final chance of this pair, however, and it would not be surprising if the Wizards front office pulls the plug if it doesn't work out next season.
On the other hand, league executives are reportedly adamant that Washington must act now. No particular reason was cited, but it would probably be safe to assume that in their minds, the Wall-Beal tandem just does not have much of a future to it.
For the record, Beal is still in contract with the Wizards until the 2022-23 season, with the final year being a player option. Based on this, Washington still has at least one year (next season) before they need to make a decision on Beal's future. This falls within the timetable explained above, and clearly stipulates that everything will be on the line for the 2020-21 campaign.