Bradley Beal will get a night off as the Washington Wizards prepare to host the New York Knicks on Friday night.
Washington announced Beal would miss the contest with a rest designation, per Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated.
Wizards say Bradley Beal (rest) will not play tomorrow against New York.
— Marc J. Spears (@MarcJSpears) February 11, 2021
Interestingly, the Knicks were thought to be one of the teams interested in trading for Beal after acquiring Derrick Rose from the Detroit Pistons.
Marc Berman of the New York Post reported the Knicks purposefully retained all of their upcoming first-round draft choices–in addition to Kevin Knox and Frank Ntilikina–in order to possibly package them in a move for a star like Beal or Houston Rockets combo guard Victor Oladipo.
But the Wizards have given no indication they plan to move Beal, and the NBA's leading scorer has recently made it clear he is more intent on helping Washington turn its season around.
Beal's agent, Mark Bartelstein, told Yahoo Sports his client does not want to quit on the Wizards. This is something Beal himself has suggested in previous press conferences.
New York has every reason to show interest in Beal after failing to land a star in either of the past two offseason periods. The Knicks also figure to have the future cap to sign Beal to a bigger deal once his current extension expires after next season.
For now, however, the Knicks might have to pivot. That could very well include trading veteran point guard Elfrid Payton so as to ensure the team can still allocate minutes to rookie guard Immanuel Quickley. As for Beal, it remains likely he'll stay put with the Wizards.
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