The Washington Wizards have managed to navigate a stormy offseason with plenty of questions surrounding the franchise. Among them is Bradley Beal's future with the franchise and the need to set a front office in stone after more than three months since longtime president Ernie Grunfeld was fired at the end of the regular season.
Those two major needs, though separate from each other, are more intertwined than one might think, as Tommy Sheppard has been in charge as the interim president of basketball operations since Grunfeld left, but he has yet to be given the full vote of confidence to run operations with a full-fledged title. Beal has been utterly supportive of Sheppard, who has been with the team for his entire playing career.
Yet the attempts to find a stable president and general manager have been futile, as there was no fire to the smoke about Toronto Raptors president Masai Ujiri and Tim Connelly of the Denver Nuggets turned down an audacious offer from owner Ted Leonsis this summer.
By July 26, the Wizards can offer Beal a three-year, $111 million extension to remain with the team, but some believe that if he chooses not to take it, it could mean he's bound for the door:
“He’s out of there,” one well-placed person within the NBA told Candace Buckner of The Washington Post.
Beal has hinted at foundational fortitude playing a part in his desire to stay, and it's likely his position hasn't changed:
“I’d be naive to say I wouldn’t be [interested in extension talks],” Beal told The Post on June 24. “Washington is where I’ve been the last seven years, going on eight. It would be great to play in one place forever. But at the same time, you want to win and make sure you’re in a position to do so. I’m definitely going to evaluate who we hire as the GM and who we pick up on the team. All that plays a factor.”
The Wizards did well this offseason to unload Dwight Howard's contract in a trade while re-signing Thomas Bryant, but they also had their share of puzzling moves, like doing a sign-and-trade to deal Tomas Satoransky to the Chicago Bulls, only to get an injury-prone Isaiah Thomas in free agency.
The series of uncalibrated decisions could ultimately be the reason Beal elects not to pick up the pen, and in the days of player empowerment and trade demands, this isn't the most far fetched of ideas when it comes to the Wizards.
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