The NBA offseason launched in earnest Wednesday afternoon with reports that the Washington Wizards will consider potential trade possibilities for Bradley Beal if the team elects to go into rebuilding mode this summer.
The news sent some Celtics fans sprinting to trade machine to craft a package for the soon-to-be 30-year-old guard who just completed the first year of a 5-year, $251 million supermax contract that will pay him $46.7 million next season.
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Here is why any sort of Beal-to-Boston deal feels unlikely:
1. There is virtually no way the Celtics can have Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and Bradley Beal on their books as early as next summer, and definitely not by the summer of 2025. Brown is supermax-eligible this summer, while Tatum can ink his own supermax extension the following summer.
The Jays' salaries will spike starting with Brown in the summer of 2024 and a new collective bargaining agreement makes it virtually impossible to carry three max price-tag players, at least without gutting your supporting cast and inviting the wrath of the new second apron.
2. While Beal has a no-trade clause that could help steer him to a preferred destination, the Wizards seemingly would have little interest in a deal for the sort of parts that Boston could offer to get near Beal’s salary.
Malcolm Brogdon and Marcus Smart should only appeal to win-now contenders, and even trying to overwhelm the Wizards with younger talent (Payton Pritchard?) and picks (all projected in the late 20s for the foreseeable future) is unlikely to get Washington’s attention.
Some will suggest a three-way deal that could deliver the likes of Brogdon and Smart to an on-the-cusp contender. But even a team like pick-gushing Oklahoma City is already well-stocked at the point guard position, and the Thunder's picks are trending towards outside the lottery with the progress they've made.
3. Under the new CBA, it is imperative that championship-level teams draft and develop young talent to supplement their high-priced stars. The Celtics can no longer splurge the sort of draft capital that they have spent in recent years, let alone the cost of what it might take to land another high-priced superstar.
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4. If the plan next season is to lean heavier back into the defensive identity that guided the Celtics to the 2022 NBA Finals, then Beal is not an ideal piece for that puzzle.
5. If your suggestion is to trade Jaylen Brown for Beal, then we don’t even known where to begin with you. So you don’t want to pay 25-year-old Brown supermax money but you want to pay Beal an average of $50 million in his age 30-33 seasons?
A better use of Boston’s money would be engaging Derrick White on early extension talks in hopes of securing a two-way guard who has already proven he brings the best out of the Jays when slotted alongside them.
The Beal-to-Boston chatter, with hopes of uniting Tatum and his St. Louis buddy, was undeniably a fun storyline in past seasons. It feels like that ship might have sailed with Brown’s development, Beal’s bulky extension, and a new CBA that could smother the idea of a super team.