The Washington Wizards’ new front office leaders and Bradley Beal have a mutual understanding that they intend to work together to find a trade that would send the three-time All-Star guard to a contender if the team elects to reset the organization, league sources tell The Athletic.
It is unclear whether the Wizards will ultimately decide upon a rebuild or if they find an acceptable trade, but sources said both sides are working amicably to find the path forward, with the 2023 NBA Draft looming on June 22. The sources, who were granted anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter, said the Miami Heat are expected to be prominent suitors for Beal if he reaches the market.
The Wizards must work with Beal to complete a trade because the five-year, $251 million maximum-salary contract that the team and Beal finalized last July includes a no-trade clause allowing Beal to block any trade. The contract also includes a 15 percent trade bonus.
When that contract was signed, Tommy Sheppard was the Wizards’ president and general manager. But the team’s principal owner, Ted Leonsis, fired Sheppard on April 19 after the Wizards missed the playoffs for the fourth time in the last five seasons.
In late May, Leonsis hired LA Clippers executive Michael Winger as the president of Monumental Basketball, with oversight over the Wizards and the WNBA’s Washington Mystics. Leonsis has given Winger full authority to remake the team if that’s the route Winger wants to take. Last week, Winger hired Oklahoma City Thunder executive Will Dawkins as the Wizards’ new general manager.
Trading Beal would allow the Wizards’ new executives to retool the team they inherited and potentially add some draft capital. Beal, whom the Wizards drafted third in 2012 out of the University of Florida, has never advanced beyond the second round of the playoffs in his 11-year pro career.
Beal, who will turn 30 on June 28, averaged 23.2 points per game on a career-high 50.6 percent shooting from the field during the 2022-23 season. But a variety of injuries and a stint in the NBA’s health-and-safety protocols limited him to 50 games.
Beal, forward Kyle Kuzma and big man Kristaps Porziņģis appeared in only 35 games together, and they amassed a 16-19 record in those games. In Beal, Kuzma and Porziņģis’ 740 minutes on the floor simultaneously, Washington outscored opponents by 3.3 points per 100 possessions.
Kuzma, who will turn 28 next month, has said he intends to turn down his player option for the upcoming season and become an unrestricted free agent this summer. Porziņģis, who will turn 28 in August, has a $36 million player option for next season.
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(Photo: Eric Hartline / USA Today)
