The Washington Wizards are off to a slow start, but Bradley Beal has done everything in his power to live up to the max contract he signed this summer.
With the salary cap boom that occurred in the NBA last summer, the list of players who signed mind-boggling contracts stretched far. It’s safe to say that Bradley Beal‘s five-year, $127 million contract was regarded as one of the worst signings based off production.
The five-year shooting guard has experienced his fair share of injuries throughout his career that have caused him to miss a total of 81 regular-season games in four seasons.
The injuries seemed to come in spurts which prevented Beal from ever really developing a dominant rhythm for the majority of the season.
The 2016-17 season is 17 games in for the Washington Wizards and Beal has played in 14. As of late, he’s been on an absolute tear.
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It reminds you why the Wizards drafted him third overall in the 2012 draft and truly how special he and John Wall could be if injuries weren’t a part of the equation in previous seasons.
The team’s record (6-11) doesn’t reflect Beal’s high-level of play. The problem with the Wizards has nothing to do with the starting lineup. Lack of depth on the bench is where they ultimately end up losing games they should win.
To help back that statement, their starting five ranks fifth in points per game (79.0) while their bench ranks 29th (23.8) in the same category.
In the last six games, the Wizards have gone 3-3 and that’s with Beal playing the best basketball of his career. Through those games he’s posted 29.5 points, 4.6 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game.
The biggest difference in Beal’s game this season is him becoming more aggressive off the dribble. Head coach Scott Brooks often involves him in pick-and-rolls as the ball handler, especially when Wall is off the floor.
As a result, he’s visiting the charity stripe more often, which is something he has stressed doing since media day in late September. His free-throw rate is currently at a career-high .259. This is the highest rate since his rookie season in 2012-13 when it was .231.
Beal is converting on 81 percent of his free-throw attempts, which is also a career-high.
Even though he is becoming more aggressive off the dribble attacking the rim, Beal has one of the prettiest shooting strokes in the league and any type of restriction from him playing to his strengths would be a detriment to the team’s success.
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With that being said, his .407 three-point attempt rate this season is by far his highest in his five years, so it isn’t like he is sacrificing the strongest part of his game in order to be more versatile.
The statistics help support the fact that Beal is taking on a bigger workload this year after signing his monster deal, but yet fans still are pointing to whether or not he is truly worth the money.
The Wizards record isn’t helping his argument, but again, the problems don’t start with Beal or any of the starters’ play.
As far as I’m concerned, the Wizards were put in a position where they couldn’t do anything else. If they don’t throw a max contract Beal’s way, there was at least two or three other teams willing to do so. Then where do they go?
They weren’t in the running for any other significant wing player and letting Beal go would only make this team even worse than their record indicates.
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If you aren’t a numbers person, just watch a few games and you’ll notice a distinct difference in Beal’s approach. This isn’t a final verdict on whether he will be worth the money down the road, but as of now, Beal is living up to every penny of that $127 million.