But Beal insisted that Thursday night was just another night of basketball. The revenge game angle wasn’t something Beal was taking the bait on in Week 1 when the Clippers beat the Suns 129 to 102, as Beal would only say: “Good dub.” Now in a loss, Beal was similarly unmoved.

“To me, it wasn’t about get back,” Beal told The Athletic about his return to Phoenix. “We whooped y’all a couple weeks ago. So it wasn’t like, you know, I don’t think it’s about that. For me, it was — no disrespect to Phoenix — but it was more meaningful for me to go back to D.C. and play, after being there for 11 years and that’s my franchise, you know? I feel like I was more geeked about that than coming back here. There’s no disrespect … but they have their way how they feel.”

Beal has played in 586 regular-season games in which he has attempted at least 14 field goals. He has only had three of those 586 games result in a worse percentage than he converted in his return to Phoenix, per Stathead. But Beal was happy to even get 14 shots to work with Thursday night.

“When’s the last time I shot 14 shots for the Suns?” Beal asked The Athletic.

The minute restriction Beal has been on due to a right knee scope has kept him from reaching 22 minutes in any of his five games this season, but Thursday night seemed like rock bottom, as he only played a season-low 19:39 while the Clippers were outscored by a season-worst 23 points in Beal’s minutes. All of this came on a night the Clippers were missing point guard James Harden due to personal leave and forward Kawhi Leonard due to a sprained right ankle.

“That’s one thing I will say is, everybody’s on my ass like, ‘Go, keep shooting, go, go, go,’” Beal said after Thursday’s game in Phoenix. “‘Just go be you, be you. Be you.’ So, that’s always encouraging. And that’s something I take to heart. And I’m happy to hear that.”

Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue, a Missouri native like Beal, expressed great enthusiasm when Beal agreed to come to LA. Lue said in a July press release that, “You can put him in so many different spots and he’ll find ways to score: out of pick-and-roll, coming off screens, catch-and-shoot. He can create his own or he can play off the ball. He’s a great cutter. He’s also a great playmaker who is going to make everybody else better.”

That kind of usage certainly appeals to Beal. Under Vogel and Budenholzer, Beal did not feel like he was used optimally, and the relationship he had with those coaches was not strong enough to work through those differences.

“When you allow me to be that guy, I’ll be that,” Beal told The Athletic. “But when you have two coaches that want you to set screens and play in the dunker, you’re not Brad Beal. You’re somebody else.”

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6786545/2025/11/07/bradley-beal-phoenix-return-clippers/?source=user_shared_article

46 comments

  4. How can a guy who has never won a single thing in his professional career have this type of attitude?

  5. the suns finally allowed brad beal to be brad beal last night and it propelled them to victory.

    and just as a side note, beal averaged 13.9 shot attempts per game last year.

  6. > “When’s the last time I shot 14 shots for the Suns?” Beal asked The Athletic.

    Literally averaged 13 FGA with the Suns last season. His last game where he shot 14 times with the Suns was quite literally his last game for the Suns. 13 FGA, four free throws where I’m assuming at least two of them come from being fouled on a shot. If not, it was the game before where he had 17 FGA.

    Also if you are a Clippers fan with any instinct at all to defend this man, just think about what he’s saying now, think about the Clippers record, think about his 8 FGA average so far. He’s saying this about the Clippers next.

  12. If I were earning $50M a year to play like absolute ass scoring 5pts on 2/14 I would like to think I would show a little humility

  16. Bradley Beal is correct. Obviously the mindset you need to make it to this level is irrational confidence.
    You need to be the guy and fight anyone else who doesn’t want you to be the guy to get to his level of success.
    This quote makes perfect sense if you’ve had to do anything slightly difficult or competitive.

    NBA players talk about how coaches and organizations ruin careers all the time by boxing them in.

  19. He has gone to such an extreme effort to make himself the most unlikable player in the league

  20. He’s lucky the wizards owner likes rewarding loyalty and paying his “best” player

  23. when I think about It this dude has never played a game that matters in his entire NBA career

  25. Glad Beal can go back to playing his brand of basketball. Now that he has, hes exploding for 7/1/1 on 35% shooting

  26. Still can’t believe this guy was mad about being asked to play a Jrue Holliday type role despite Jrue being both a better player and a more established winner

  28. I always thought he was a good player then I watched a full year of him the year Russ played there

    Oh my god. They were the worst defender I’ve ever seen in my entire life of watching the NBA. I felt like they weren’t even trying bc it’s impossible to be that bad. Flat footed, blown by, looking the other way

    Then offensively he would dribble the ball for 18 seconds at a time looking for his own shot then throw a grenade to somebody and wind out getting an assist

    Hed collect stats but they’d be down 20

    Once Russ took the reigns that pushed into the playoffs and Brad actually got better just shooting the open shots Russ made

    Early in his career he was carried by John wall, then he just farmed stats on a horrific team that didn’t care letting him work bc it was a recipe to win

    Then Russ got him an all nba appearance which 100% should’ve been Russ’s he was the only reason they won games.

    At his absolute peak he was a starting caliber SG at best, but was playing on a SUPER MAX in PHX

    Now he’s on a minimum (mind you not past his prime at all, he’s 31 years old) and everyone is seeing the kind of player he really is when the intent is to win

  29. Wizards why the hell you give this bum a no trade clause I know he averaged 30 one season but it’s on a trash fire team so who else was scoring

  31. This dude is so fake with all the smiling and good-guy vibes he tries to put out. You won’t be missed.

  38. I mean, he’s not wrong that putting him in the dunker spot is stupid lol but that’s what he gets for forcing himself to teams with better scoring guards who deserve the ball more than he does

  39. It was clear when this dude got offended when asked to play more like Jrue Holiday (a less talented but better player) that he was uninterested in learning about how to win.

  43. This is the stupid mindset I was thinking about, I never set screens to just set the screen, I set the screen to create an advantage for my teammates so the guy guarding me has to help so I am open to get the ball, call it selfish if you want, but I prefer my teammates have that kind of mindset

  46. Bradley Beal about to join the guys on ESPN to let them know when he scored 30+ that he was one of the best scorers of his time that was improperly used on all his teams.

    Then he’ll claim if he was on Golden State instead of Curry, he would’ve won a title too.

    McGrady, Melo, and Carter will then proceed to nod in unison while parroting the same relation to Bradley while Perkins will say some shit about being the anchor to the best championship in Boston.

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