Rumored trade target No. 1: Bradley Beal
The reasons behind a Bradley Beal trade are almost identical to the ones explained in LaVine’s scenario. An elite scorer whose talents are being wasted would help New York’s offense tremendously.
What separates the two, though, is the trade package that would be required to fetch them. In LaVine’s case, plenty of assets would have to be sacrificed in order to make the deal. In Beal’s case, almost every asset would have to be sacrificed.
Bradley Beal is the league’s leading scorer, at 32.9 points per game, and is in the thirties for the second consecutive season. Unfortunately for him, these uncanny performances have not been resulting in wins for the Washington Wizards.
The Wizards are in a pretty weird state at the moment. Having the league’s best scorer, plus a very recent MVP winner in Russell Westbrook, only to end up 3.5 games behind the New York Knicks has got to stink.
No official plans for a rebuild have been set as of yet, though one has to imagine that Beal will be requesting a move out of Washington pretty soon, should they fail to qualify for the playoffs.
Even then, the price tag set on Beal’s name will be one that very few teams will be able or willing to match. Trading everything you’ve got for a player that has never been on a contending team to show his value is just not worth it.
Verdict: Pass on Bradley Beal