Bradley Beal has been the most important figure on the Washington Wizards for the past four seasons now. He's the undisputed face of the franchise and has carried himself like one – both on and off the court.
Beal and the Wizards raced off to a dream start this season, going 10-3 through their first 13 games and stayed atop the Eastern Conference for a brief but glorious moment. However, Washington went hurtling back down to earth in recent weeks, highlighted by a brutal stretch where they lost seven of eight games.
With Beal's ability to opt out of his contract by the end of this season, it's still completely up in the air as to whether Brad will be the man in D.C. going forward.
Here are three reasons why the Washington Wizards must consider trading Bradley Beal.
3 reasons the Wizards must consider trading Bradley Beal
Bradley Beal is an excellent player, but not a true alpha
There's no doubting Bradley Beal's talent on the basketball court. He's shown himself to be one of the league's best scorers and averaged over 30 points in back-to-back seasons.
But it's also telling that the Wizards have been relatively mediocre in those seasons. They went 59-85 in those two campaigns, ending in a first-round knockout last season and an NBA Draft lottery appearance two seasons ago.
He's also fallen back down to earth after his two monster statistical campaigns, averaging just 23.3 points per game on a career-worst 28.3% shooting clip from three, continuing a troubling decline in his long-range shooting.
For as great of a player that Bradley Beal is, having him as your biggest star is not likely to produce a team capable of making it past the second round of the playoffs, at best. While that's no direct knock on Beal, it's his contract situation that may be what forces the issue for the Wizards to act sooner rather than later.
D.C. went down the same road with John Wall
Bradley Beal deservedly earned a third-team All-NBA nod for his all-world efforts to lead the Wizards last season. With that accolade comes the financial incentive that makes him eligible for the vaunted supermax NBA contract extension.
Wizards fans are no strangers to the provision, given that the same exact scenario played out for former franchise player John Wall. The star point guard made the third-team back during the 2016-17 season, which prompted the Wizards to hand him a supermax extension that immediately made him one of the highest paid players in the NBA making nearly 50 million in annual salary.
John Wall's contract ended up becoming one of the worst in the NBA, as he now flounders without any playing time on a rebuilding Houston Rockets squad. While injuries are what truly marred the value of the contract, it still shows the risk you take when locking up that much salary cap space on a player that probably doesn't crack the top 15 best players in the NBA.
The Wizards have a chance to hit the reset button
Any decision to trade Bradley Beal is by no means a slight against his talent. When he's on his game, he can hang with some of the league's best on any given night.
But the the first two reasons are indicative of the realities in the NBA. It's truly a business and committing that much money to Bradley Beal just doesn't seem like a sound investment.
Instead, the Wizards could have a chance to acquire an intriguing young piece such as say Ben Simmons or Jaylen Brown. While neither player is an alpha themselves, it at least allows for a virtual reset on the Wizards' window to build a contender without committing 35% of their salary cap to just one player.
They have some young pieces in Deni Avdija, Rui Hachimura, and Daniel Gafford alongside some veterans on team-friendly deals like Spencer Dinwiddie, Kyle Kuzma, and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. The Wizards will have all the flexibility in the world to trend in either direction, without being locked into trying to compete if they max Bradley Beal out.
But at the end of the day, the Wizards will probably leave the decision up to Bradley Beal himself. He's done enough for the franchise in his 10 years on the team to garner the final say with his future.
If the team isn't where he'd like it to be come trade deadline, perhaps he requests a trade to a contender like the Philadelphia 76ers to team up with Joel Embiid or join his hometown pal Jayson Tatum on the Boston Celtics.
The Wizards will have to make a decision on Bradley Beal sooner or later. Hopefully, it's one that puts them in the best position to succeed in the seasons to come.
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