Bradley Beal Waive-And-Stretch Was Phoenix Suns’ ONLY Path Forward…

Bradley Beal Waive-And-Stretch Was Phoenix Suns’ ONLY Path Forward…

The Bradley Beal era is over in Phoenix and lots of people think that waving and stretching his massive salary was the wrong move. Gerald is here to convince me that it was the right one. If you missed all of our breaking news coverage, you can check that out right here on PHNX Sports Plus live shows and watchs all the time, all right here. But Gerald, let’s not bury the lead. Suns are going to be paying Bradley Beal a lot of money, somewhere around 20ish million dollar per year for the next five years. I’m hesitant as making a two-year problem a five-year problem. I think both sides have their downsides. Why was this the best possible path forward for the Suns? Yeah, I think off the top you had mentioned, I’m going to convince you it’s the right move. I don’t know if I can convince you that it’s the right move, but I think it was the best move out of what they had available. It was only bad options at this point in terms of what you could do with Bradley Beiel’s contract. And by getting him to sacrifice about 13.9 million of the 110.8 8 million that was left on his deal. Spreading that out over the next five years, it’s about 19.4 million a year in dead money. That that is a lot. I’m not going to lie. That that could hurt you down the line. But it does open up a ton of flexibility because the Suns have been able to duck the second tax apron, the first tax apron, and even the luxury tax. And we’re just going to rip through some of these. You now have the ability to use your mid-level exception or your bannual exception. Though it’s worth noting if you use the BAE, you will be hardcapped at the first apron because that is only for teams that are between the salary cap and the aprons. You can aggregate outgoing salaries in trades. How often did we talk about the Suns could only trade one player at a time in an outgoing deal. They can take back more money than they send out in trades. We talked about that a lot as well. Any player that the Suns could trade last year, the salary coming in return had to be less. That’s not the case anymore. Uh you can execute signin trades. You can send out cash in trades as an extra incentive for teams. You can absorb players into the mid-level exception. This is new in this year’s or in the new CBA that you can use it basically like a trade exception to absorb a player into that salary without sending outgoing salary in return. Uh the Suns had a 3.3 million and a 2.3 million trade exception that they can now use as well. They move closer to unfreezing their 2032 first round pick. They have to stay out of the second apron or beneath it in three of the next four years to do that. Uh but they’re on the right path if they stay out of the second apron starting this year. And it keeps their 2033 first round pick from being frozen. If they were in the second tax apron by the end of this upcoming season, seven years from now, that 2033 pick would also be frozen. So there are some benefits to it. It does open up a level of optionality that they did not have before. You are going to have to eat that dead salary, but that matters less to a team that’s has an owner like Matt Ishbia that is willing to go into the luxury tax. The key is just making sure you don’t go into the aprons. But if Ishbia is willing to spend, he’s willing to go into the luxury tax. It’s okay. It’s his money that he’s spending it on. You know, we know that this front office has been maligned, not aligned, but maligned for their impatience, right? Pushing all their chips to the center table. It’s how you get here in this situation with Bradley Beal. how you get here with your situation with Kevin Durant. And so I do understand and sometimes feel the worry and the hesitation of saying screw it, we’re going to elongate this so that we can get some more flexibility right now. And I do think that there’s a chance that we look back on it and say like that lack of extra money that you have to spend might be a problem for the Suns, but the reality is whether you had Bradley be on the team or not, you weren’t like contending this year. Hopefully, you’re trying to compete and I think having Bradley Beiel on this roster. Well, maybe somebody would have been willing to trade for one year of his expiring salary and instead of the two years of it or maybe somebody would be willing, if they saw him play better this season to trade for him, but you don’t know if any of that’s going to actually happen if you keep him here. You don’t even know if he’s going to play, right? So, I don’t love it. I don’t think anybody should love it. This is the awful ending to a failed experiment for the Phoenix Suns. And it comes after such a high moment. You come off the finals run. Then you get Kevin Durant. Then in a lot of people’s minds, you steal Bradley Beal for a reasonable price. But you know what? It ended up not being a reasonable price and you would have still had to deal with that no trade clause as well. Jared, what are your final thoughts on on Bradley Beal’s contract buyout and maybe just the Bradley Beal experience in the valley? Yeah, I mean obviously it’s a failure. You can’t look at this big three era that only lasted two years and say anything otherwise. But I think there’s something to be said for pivoting when you know that it’s not going to work instead of just keeping Bradley Beal on the books for the next two years and basically wasting the next two years of Deon Booker’s prime. I I know that people are going to look at this as kind of a short-term move so they can contend now. I think there are long-term ripple effects that could matter. In addition to that, I don’t think you should be expecting the Suns to go out and immediately put their MLE to good use on some guy that’s going to move the needle for them. But I think it’s a matter of creating that flexibility. If you have an open roster spot, you can trade for a guy in the MLE salary range. Or if somebody gets bought out, guess what? Suddenly you’re in the front seat to sign somebody like that because you have more money to offer. So I think if the Suns do fill out their 15-man roster, they’re going to go back into that luxury tax. So, I’m not sure yet that that’s the plan, but I think it’s about more than just, oh, well, who are they going to sign with the MLE now? I think it’s about admitting that as much as there’s no animosity with Bradley Beal, it was a failed experiment, it was time for both teams to move on. And I wrote about this over at gophnx.com in addition to breaking down all the the minutia of this deal that like they threaded the needle between getting younger and staying competitive in the here and now. And that was a goal of the front office. I think they did it well. This team might not be a great team. They might not be a playoff team, but at least they have a direction and a vision now and they’re being consistent with what they told us they were trying to acquire and what they went out this off season and got on the roster. What do you think of the trade? Was it the right move or not the trade? We all know the trade wasn’t the right move of the buyout. Was it the right move? Was it a wrong move? Drop a comment, leave a like, keep it tuned as PHX Suns takes you through the rest of the Suns off season. Maybe not as big breaking news moments, but that’s what we like to talk about. That’s right, the actual game, the actual basketball. It’s time for us to dive into some fresh new conversations about Dylan Brooks, Jaylen Green, the Bachelor rookies, and the new era of the Phoenix Suns. Make sure you are around for it right here on PHNX Sports. [Applause] [Music]

The Phoenix Suns finally made the move fans had been waiting for, waiving-and-stretching Bradley Beal’s contract over the next 5 years, putting them below the 2nd apron. Erik Ruby and Gerald Bourguet break down all the positives that the Suns can take advantage of going forward, and why it might not have been a perfect choice, but the best path forward for all sides involved.

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