Bradley Beal might waive his no-trade clause and the Suns need to be ready

Could Bradley Beal be willing to move if the right team calls? The Phoenix Suns should probably talk to him about that.

The Bradley Beal saga drags on for the Phoenix Suns, with swirling rumors and suggestions offering glimmers of hope, but no real progress or movement taking shape. Unlike Miami’s situation with Jimmy Butler — where the player has made it clear he wants out and even provided a list of preferred destinations — Phoenix isn’t dealing with such direct demands.

The Suns find themselves in a vastly different predicament. The wrench in their plans? Bradley Beal.

With a no-trade clause in his contract and two more seasons after this one (one of which is a $57.1 million player option for 2026-27 that he’s almost certain to exercise), Beal holds all the cards. Unlike Miami, which is dealing with a player eligible for an extension at season’s end, Phoenix is tied to a player who controls his own future and will collect his payday through 2027. This dynamic has made Beal’s presence on the roster especially challenging.

Rumors are swirling around the league about potential landing spots for Beal, as Mark Stein mentioned just days ago.

The Bucks, to this point, have been more frequently painted as a team likely to rekindle their previous interest in Phoenix’s Bradley Beal if they intend to pursue a trade for a player in the $50 million range. The reality in Milwaukee, in any case, is that the Bucks can’t make a trade run at either player unless they first dodge second apron restrictions by finding a taker for Pat Connaughton’s $9.4 million contract in a deal that does not require them to take back salary.

The Bucks emerge as a logical destination for Beal. With Damian Lillard running the point and Giannis Antetokounmpo as a generational talent, Beal would fit seamlessly into the shooting guard spot on a team currently sitting at 24-17 as the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference. However, as Mark Stein noted, the Bucks face their own hurdles.

Even then, a straight-up trade for Beal might not get the job done.

This is where a three-team deal, involving the Miami Heat, could help facilitate Butler landing in Phoenix and Beal heading to Milwaukee. However, even those scenarios are complex and not all teams involved (Miami, in this case) may walk away from the deal feeling they received what their outgoing asset was worth.

Phoenix might need to loop in four or five teams to pull it off, an ambitious but not impossible task in today’s NBA. Just consider the recent six-team trade that sent Klay Thompson to the Mavericks, with Dallas, Minnesota, Golden State, Denver, Charlotte, and Philadelphia all playing a part in making it happen.

Rumors suggest that Bradley Beal might be open to waiving his no-trade clause if the right team comes calling. The Athletic’s Fred Katz wrote this today:

The Suns are making calls about the two veterans they just moved to the bench, though they have yet to ask Beal for his thoughts about any potential trade, team sources said. Beal’s sign-off is necessary, considering he can veto any deal that includes him.

He would consider waiving his no-trade clause for the right destination, according to a source familiar with his thinking. But as of now, management hasn’t gauged whether he wants out — and if so, to where? It’s not Beal’s style to approach a front office on his own. He went 11 years in Washington without asking for a trade. Once the Wizards finally moved him, it was because new leadership initiated the idea, not the other way around. He has told people close to him that if the Suns never ask him to waive the no-trade clause to facilitate a deal, then he won’t propose it on his own.

What do I take from that? Aside from a slight flicker of excitement, it’s clear the Suns haven’t even broached the topic with Beal. This hasn’t been a conversation. Beal himself has said as much, famously stating, “I hold the cards.” In that same clip, he noted the Suns haven’t approached him about a trade.

Obviously, I can’t say for sure if that’s true or not. I’m not dialed into the Suns’ war room or lurking in their group chats. I don’t have a secret line to Beal’s agent. But if they really haven’t had that conversation yet, it’s borderline negligence.

Your team’s championship window with Devin Booker and Kevin Durant is rapidly closing, and there’s one glaring flaw on the roster. A conversation with Bradley Beal needs to happen. Plain and simple. You have to let him know you’re considering moving him to another team. It’s the right thing to do. The last thing you want is to jump through all the hoops, have all the discussions, and then approach Beal only to find him frustrated for being left out of the process.

Unless Phoenix isn’t even interested in moving him, and if that’s the case…well, I’m lost. Confused. Baffled. Disappointed. Upset. Frustrated. Beal in Phoenix, especially on that deal, has never made sense from the jump. If the Suns, with all their scouting, all their advanced metrics, and all their insider access to the situation, can’t see that, then maybe there are bigger issues at play here.

The trade deadline is February 6, and it’s creeping up fast. This season’s success might not hinge on a championship, but rather on moving off the Beal contract to extend the Booker/Durant window. We’ll keep an ear to the ground, tracking the rumors and hoping that, sooner or later, one of them finally pans out.