Suns’ Beal expects owner to demand changes after disappointing season
Given the Suns’ disappointing season, Bradley Beal expects Mat Ishbia to demand changes. Will his place on the team be one of them?
- Bradley Beal’s large contract and no-trade clause present a challenge for the Phoenix Suns after they traded Kevin Durant.
- The Suns have four draft picks in the upcoming draft to address their need for frontcourt depth.
Bradley Beal remains the elephant in the room for the Phoenix Suns.
He has a no-trade clause heading into the fourth year of a five-year, $251-million contract after playing just 53 games in each of his two seasons with the Suns. Phoenix landed Beal before the 2023-24 season in a trade with Washington that involved Chris Paul.
Seeing Kevin Durant traded on June 22 to Houston upsets Suns fans who believe Beal should be gone instead. Phoenix acquired Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks, the 10th overall pick in the June 25-26 NBA Draft and five second-round selections for Durant.
Green is a shooting guard, which further begs the question: What are Phoenix’s plans for Beal?
The Suns looked to move Beal, whose natural position is also shooting guard, before the 2025 deadline, but couldn’t find an ideal landing spot for the three-time All-Star. Suns star Devin Booker is also primarily a shooting guard, the position at which he’s been most effective.
“You have to figure out what you’re going to do with Bradley Beal,” ESPN’s Bobby Marks said during an ESPN media session on June 23, in previewing the draft. “I mean, that’s the biggest question now in Phoenix as far as what you do with him and will he take a buyout. How do you proceed with him because you have him, you have Booker and you have Jalen Green as I guess your three-guard lineup right now.”
Beal offered a forecast after the 2024-25 home finale for how Suns team owner Mat Ishbia was going to approach the offseason following a 36-win season.
“I believe in what we got in there,” Beal said. “Things happen. We didn’t have a good year. We couldn’t put it together like we wanted, but nobody hates the other man. Nobody dislikes anybody else. I love Phoenix. I love being here. Hopefully, I can continue to be here, but I know Mat is probably going to make some changes, but I enjoyed this group.”
Beal averaged 17 points, his lowest since his third NBA season in 2014-15. The Suns can’t waive and stretch Beal’s contract because they’d exceed the 15% limit on dead salary for waived players.
“I think you need a little more clarity, but it’s a rarity where you trade the best player, but your payroll is still skyrocketed through the roof here and I think you do still have to get somewhat of a handle on that also,” Marks said.
Phoenix can get close to being under the second tax apron if they part with Cody Martin and Vasilije Micic. The Suns acquired them from Charlotte for Jusuf Nurkic before the 2025 trade deadline.
The Suns have a club option on Micic for the 2025-26 season on the final year of his deal that’s set to pay him $8.1 million. Martin is also entering the final year of his deal for $8.6 million that becomes fully guaranteed June 30.
Martin saw more playing time than Micic in Phoenix. Martin averaged 3.7 points in 14 games while Micic went scoreless in 21 minutes over the course of five games.
The Suns have four draft picks in the upcoming draft with two coming from the trade with the Rockets – the 10th and 59th overall (second round) selections.
They also have the 29th overall pick and 52nd overall choices in the draft.
“It’s not a rebuild,” Marks said. “You’re trying to figure out how to be competitive with adding four young players to go with Devin Booker and Bradley Beal and Jalen Green and Dillon Brooks. You need frontcourt depth. Can you get your best available and position of need at 10? I think that’s going to be important.”
Ishbia fired Mike Budenholzer as coach after one season as the Suns failed to make the playoffs for the first time since the 2019-20 season, which was the last time they had a losing record.
Cleveland Cavaliers assistant Jordan Ott replaced Budenholzer on a four-year deal for his first NBA head coaching position.
Have opinions about the current state of the Suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at dmrankin@gannett.com or contact him at 480-810-5518. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @DuaneRankin.
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