When Jayson Tatum and Bradley Beal are on the court together, it's hard not to picture the Washington Wizards star in Boston Celtics green.
Tatum and Beal grew up together in St. Louis and are close friends to this day. The 23-year-old C's forward recently expressed his excitement to play alongside his childhood pal in the NBA All-Star Game. With all of that, plus Beal being on a losing team in Washington, some believe Boston would be a good fit for the NBA's leading scorer.
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NBC Sports Washington's Chris Miller discussed the odds of Beal joining the C's and emphatically shut down the proposition.
"There's no way Bradley Beal's going to Boston, I'll just tell you that," Miller said Friday on Early Edition. "Bradley's not going anywhere. He's heard over the last two years every team it seems like's fanbase courting Bradley Beal. And why not? This guy is the leading scorer in the league, he has developed into one of the best players in the league, and offensively he is literally unguardable."
But if Tatum wants Beal to team up with him and compete for an NBA championship, why wouldn't Beal oblige?
"Well, who's to say that phone call hasn't happened? I'm just saying, listen, if Jayson Tatum wants to play with Brad, why wouldn't he call him? Call [Wizards GM] Tommy Sheppard and see what the Wizards would want for Bradley Beal from Boston," Miller said. "But on a serious note, there's no way he's coming there.
"First of all, you have to think about what the Boston Celtics have in terms of their wing players. They have clearly identified that Tatum and Brown are the centerpieces toward a championship. And now you've added players like Kemba Walker who are not the first option like he was in Charlotte. Brad is not gonna go to Boston to be a second option, third option, fourth option. This guy wants to come there and be the guy, and Jayson's just scratching the surface of how great he could be. I just don't see that happening."
Our own Chris Forsberg recently laid out what needs to happen for Beal to join Tatum in Boston, and it's a long shot. The Celtics' $28.5 million traded player exception is $100,000 short of absorbing Beal's contract, so Beal certainly won't be wearing a C's uniform this season. Perhaps a year or two down the line it's a possibility, but it'll all comes down to whether his bond with Tatum is strong enough to lure him to Boston.
For now, we'll just have to settle for Tatum and Beal teaming up in Sunday's NBA All-Star Game for Team Durant.