The path out of Phoenix is littered with obstacles.
Welcome to the How to Fix the Suns series, where we break down the paths available to the Phoenix Suns as they navigate the 2025 offseason.
Pretty much all indications point to the fanbase not wanting Bradley Beal back in 2025-26. Arizona Sports Suns insider John Gambadoro recently stated that Beal won’t be back in 2025-26. That could be true, but — as I’m sure most fans already know — it isn’t going to be easy or painless to do so. Here, I’ll attempt to go over the options that the Suns have and the obstacles in the way.
A Trade
Trading him is the best option for the team, but it’s also the least likely thing to happen.
First and foremost, there’s the no-trade clause (NTC) in his contract. He can veto any trade he doesn’t like/want. Second, even if he were to waive this NTC, what team would actually want him and his massive salary for two more seasons?
The most reasonable answer to that is a team that’s at or near the beginning of a rebuild and could use that huge salary of his just to reach the NBA salary floor, the minimum amount of team salary that franchises must have each year. If they don’t reach that floor, they won’t get the full amount of cash owed to them through the NBA’s revenue-sharing system.
In that respect, there might actually be a team or two that could have some interest in trading for him. And with the new TV deal, the cap will not be the only thing going up by 10% over the next several years, the floor will also be rising at the same rate. Beal’s full salary in 2025-26 will equal to 34.7% of the cap, but his 2026-27 salary would be equal to 33.6%, so the overall impact decreases slightly.
Even if some team would place some value in obtaining Beal and his contract, the return surely wouldn’t be good. More than likely, it would be several bad/mediocre players on bad contracts AND even then, the Suns would likely have to toss in some of their few remaining draft picks to get the deal done.
Some might actually prefer that to keeping Beal, but then the issue of Beal’s NTC comes up again.
Why would he waive it to go to a tanking team? I doubt he would unless THAT team promised to do something that the Suns can’t…waive and stretch him immediately (if they don’t already have dead money on their cap sheet, it could be done). It’s a far-fetched idea, but not impossible. It would put a lot of dead money on their cap sheet for many years but with the continued rise in the cap due to the new TV deal, the percentage of cap space it would take up would shrink year by year while still helping to keep them above the salary floor.
Yeah, I know it’s very likely just a pipe dream, but it’s at least remotely possible.
The main point here is that trading Beal is probably just not going to happen, and we should consider the other options.
Waiving Him
There are actually two sub-options here, including outright waiving him and a buyout/waive.
Simply waiving him just saddles the Suns with the $110,794,880 still owed to him in the final two years of his contract. Stretching that salary is not an option in this case as it would violate the league’s rule that prohibits teams from carrying over 15% of the cap in dead salary (which would include the dead money the Suns already owe Nassir Little and EJ Liddell). That can’t be done, but…
A buyout/waive and stretching the remaining salary would be possible IF Beal were to agree to it, BUT some people have the wrong idea of what a buyout is.
The buyout rule was instituted to give players a way to buy their way out of a contract situation that they are unhappy with. They are the ones who actually have to give up money to do it, not the team. In other words, they agree to get paid less than the full contract value to get out of the contract and become an unrestricted free agent. Only the amount of cash that the player agrees to forfeit comes off the team’s cap sheet, and the team is still responsible for paying the player the rest.
In Beal’s case, the amount he would need to forfeit to make it work would be a lot. John Voita wrote about this a few days ago, and the word he got from ESPN’s Bobby Marks was that it would take Beal giving up around $25-30 million. My own calculations put it closer to $15 million, but either way, Beal would still have to agree to it, and neither amount is chump change. Beal also has a 15% trade kicker (worth about $16.5 million) in his contract, which he would lose if he’s waived instead of traded, which could be a factor in any decision he makes on accepting a buyout.
While Beal could probably make up those lost dollars in a new contract with a new team, that depends on his perceived value in the eyes of other GMs once he hits free agency, and his past injury issues will certainly play a part in determining that.
There’s the possibility that none of the teams that would/could give him a good free agent offer would be on his ‘preferred’ list.
With the new CBA, many contending teams either wouldn’t have much available cap space or access to the full mid-level exception (MLE), which means they couldn’t make him a really good contract offer. For those with access to the full MLE, using it immediately hard-caps them at the first tax apron, which could make them hesitant to use it. The fact is that he likely couldn’t afford to be too picky about his next team if he wants to make that money back quickly, which could play a part in his willingness to do a buyout.
On the plus side, players who are in buyout discussions can have their agents contact other teams they have interest in to gauge their interest in acquiring them. Doing this lets them know how quickly they could make back the cash they forfeit and where they would have to play to earn it.
Often, players already have a landing spot lined up before the buyout agreement is finalized, which is the determining factor on just how much salary they are willing to give up. This is likely the key to whether the Suns and Beal can reach a buyout agreement as, if he already knows there is a team he would like to play for that is willing to pay him an agreeable amount, the buyout gets done. If that team isn’t out there, probably no deal gets done.
For the Suns, even with a buyout making it possible to stretch his remaining salary, that still leaves them with a very large amount of dead money on their cap sheet for the next five years. Not a good situation, but as I said earlier in the article, with the cap steadily going up over the next several years due to the new TV deal, that chunk of dead money has a smaller and smaller impact as time passes.
For 2025-26, the amount of dead salary the Suns could carry and stay under the 15% maximum is $23,181,586 (the total of the amounts owed to Beal, Little, and Liddell). That would remain constant through 2026-27, but the percentage of the cap it would take up then would drop to 13.6% and 12.0% in 2027-28 after Liddell drops off the dead money list. It will continue to hurt the Suns’ financial flexibility in the future but the pain will slightly lessen as time passes.
Holding on to Him for One More Season
A lot of people aren’t going to like this option, but it’s probably the most feasible, and financially, it’s better for the Suns than the buyout/waive and stretch option this offseason.
First, because of the rising cap, no buyout would be necessary to stretch the final year of his contract. Second, the dead money hit to the Suns’ cap sheet would end after the 2028-29 season rather than the 2029-30 season. Third, the Suns would be more likely to find a team willing to trade for him with just one year remaining on his contract than with two which would result in no dead money on the Suns’ cap sheet in future years. Also, the value of that 15% trade kicker drops from $16.5 mil to $8.5 mil if a trade partner is found next summer instead of this one.
If you’re one of the fans who just wants him gone, I know you’re not in favor of this option BUT keeping him for 2025-26 doesn’t necessarily mean playing him. The team could do as they did with Jae Crowder and tell him to just go home and collect his paychecks while they (and his agent) continue to search for a trade partner that he would consider waiving his NTC to go to.
It would be a short-term hit to their financial flexibility, but it wouldn’t stop them from getting beneath the 2nd tax apron if that’s one of their goals. Not playing him also has the added advantage of not risking another injury — perhaps a serious one — that could derail any possibility of a trade happening.
Summary
An outright trade is certainly the best option for the Suns, but the least likely to happen for various reasons. A buyout/waive and stretch this offseason would burden the Suns financially with many years of dead money on their cap sheet, and Beal has to agree to it. Holding on to him one more year gives the Suns more time to find a trade that works for both parties and adds to the short-term financial burden but potentially lessens or even fully relieves it in the future.
There are so many unknowns to consider, I won’t even hazard a guess as to how this all eventually plays out. I do not doubt that the Suns and Beal will begin discussions soon though and will hopefully work things out quickly.
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