(06-22-2025, 08:43 PM)DanSchwartzgan Wrote: Gambo in Phoenix says no way Beal suits up with the Suns again. He’s been saying it for a while and doubled down today. Beal makes too much to stretch waive. Phoenix doesn’t have much to attach to Beal to sweeten the pot. #10? That would be crazy. Just gut yourself to get rid of KD and Beal when you don’t control your own draft for years to come.
"Gambo in Phoenix says no way Beal suits up with the Suns again." --- At first, that sounds like wishful thinking. I can understand why that would be their goal, but don't see an avenue to moving him and what do you do with him if you can't find a trade?
I sure wouldn't pay a team to take him. I'd look for someone with really bad contracts and see if they are open to a swap. The no-trade control limits that, of course. Just sit him on the bench, or keep him inactive, for however long it takes, so he will agree to any trade you can find? Then again, who wants him, with that absurd contract?
So I think the only path left is a stretch waive of BB (where he hits their cap for 7 seasons) -- probably the most practical path to getting a rebuild started, frankly, and it also fixes their absurd tax issue for such a bad team. But wow, 7 years of huge dead money is a long time. Then again, they're probably screwed anyhow for about that long (no talent, no cap room to get FAs, no picks), so if it's my GM-ing, that's probably my choice. 110M is clearly a lot to flush, but it's sunk money at this point. (And while it's impossible to figure out the exact payroll if they kept Beal on the books, it looks like the sw would save them in the vicinity of that 110M, in tax savings in the first year alone).
Their trade for BB really wrecked their team. Cautionary tale about big contracts.
I did a quick look at their payroll, and with a BB sw, and waiving all their NG guys (Martin, Micic, Richards), they can offer a big MLE and then fill up the roster with minimums and end up under the tax line. If they like to keep one (or maybe even 2) of those NG/TO guys, they can keep them and forego the MLE, and probably still stay below tax line with careful cap work.
It sure feels like they would try to move Brooks somewhere but he's not priced favorably, so they might be stuck with him. And not just Brooks - it really feels to me like their best road is to try to play the Presti game as soon as they can get there - which is, EVERYONE is available in trade at the right price, and every trade costs a pick (FRP, basically), but get the payroll down where you can eat contracts on out of flavor vets (for a pick) and then trade them when someone needs them (for a pick).