Veteran guard Bradley Beal has reached an agreement on a buyout with the Suns and will be placed on waivers, reports Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link).
Once he clears waivers and becomes a free agent, Beal intends to sign with the Clippers on a two-year, $11MM deal that will include a second-year player option, agent Mark Bartelstein tells Charania.
A buyout had long been the anticipated outcome for Beal, with John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7 suggesting back in April that there was a “zero percent chance” of the three-time All-Star returning to Phoenix for the 2025/26 season. While the Suns explored trade options for Beal, his two-year, $111MM contract and no-trade clause made it virtually impossible for the team to move him, so the two sides began discussing a buyout early in free agency.
As we wrote at that time, in order for the Suns to use the stretch provision on Beal and spread out his remaining salary across five seasons (instead of two), he would have to give back roughly $13.88MM in a buyout agreement — a team isn’t permitted to carry stretched salary totaling more than 15% of the salary cap, and Phoenix had previously used the stretch provision on Nassir Little and E.J. Liddell.
According to Fred Katz of The Athletic (Twitter link), Beal will indeed give back that required $13.88MM in the buyout agreement, giving the Suns the option of stretching his $96.9MM in remaining salary. And they’re virtually certain to take that path, tweets Gerald Bourguet of PHNX Sports.
The Suns had been operating over the second tax apron this offseason, but reducing Beal’s 2025/26 cap hit from about $53.67MM to $19.38MM won’t just move them out of second-apron territory — as cap experts Bobby Marks and Yossi Gozlan detail (all Twitter links), Phoenix can get all the way below the luxury tax line as a result of the buyout. That would eliminate an estimated $176MM in tax penalties and unlock a handful of restrictions related to trades and free agency, including the use of the non-taxpayer mid-level exception.
As Gozlan notes, the Suns figure to move slightly back over the tax line once they add a 14th man to replace Beal, but they’ll be in position to duck the tax with a minor roster move later in the season. Previous reporting indicated that Phoenix will likely use the roster spot being vacated by Beal on a point guard or combo guard.
As a result of being waived, Beal will no longer hold his no-trade clause, and he won’t immediately make back the money that he’s giving up in his buyout agreement. However, according to Charania (Twitter links), the 32-year-old became increasingly excited about the possibility of reaching free agency after meeting with multiple interested teams in recent weeks, a process spearheaded by Bartelstein with the approval of the Suns.
The Clippers were reported last week to be the favorites to land Beal following the trade that sent Norman Powell to Miami. Beal will take that newly opened spot in L.A.’s backcourt and will be signed using the remainder of the club’s mid-level exception. Brook Lopez received $8.75MM of that $14.104MM exception, leaving $5,354,000 for Beal. That will be his first-year salary, followed by a $5,621,700 player option for 2026/27.
The signing will leave the Clippers roughly $3.5MM below their first-apron hard cap, with 13 players under contract, tweets Keith Smith of Spotrac. That means, barring cost-cutting moves, the club won’t be able to carrying a 15th man to open the season, since a veteran-minimum deal counts toward the cap for about $2.3MM.
While Beal’s value has taken a hit in recent years due to his maximum-salary contract and some injury issues, he has continued to be one of the NBA’s efficient backcourt scorers when he’s healthy. Across two seasons in Phoenix, he averaged 17.6 points, 4.3 assists, and 3.9 rebounds per game on .505/.407/.808 shooting in 106 outings (91 starts).
You’re a little too young for the retirement home, Bradley.
lol well done sir
Suns should do this in June so they can use Non tax MLE for a good player
This should end gloriously.
Lakes fans might be mad but they just dodged a bullet
Really? You don’t think he can produce enough value to justify the $11 M over two years that it took to sign him? My guess is that the Clippers come out ahead at that price.
The clippers can hide him on defense. The lakers cannot. I didn’t say anything about the clippers and I didn’t say his contract wasn’t valuable. Yall just assume too much.
$5 million dollars for a solid player is hardly dodging a bullet. Its a steal of a deal because Phoenix is footing the bill. It’s a one year deal, minimal risk with high reward
Beal intends to sign with the Clippers on a two-year, $11MM deal that will include a second-year player option…
Sorry, forgot about the player option. Still minimal risk tho.
Agree – and given the 2026-2027 salary, he might end up choosing to go elsewhere. That said, he and his family live in LA during the off-season, I think, so he might just play it out.
Legendary bucket getter, legendary bag getter!
The NBA’s version of Kirk Cousins lol
A clippers thing to do.
Clippers hosting the unction
Harden, Beal, Kawhi, Collins, Zu…
Bench: Dunn, Bobi, Jones Jr, Batum, Lopez
Is this team a threat to OKC or Nuggets though?
The Clippers should be considered a legitimate threat to the Nuggets. They pushed Denver to seven games in the playoffs without John Collins or Brook Lopez and relying on Norman Powell in place of a higher impact player like Bradley Beal. With those upgrades, their ceiling is clearly higher.”
Yeah 5 years ago lol.
They took the Nuggets to 7 just three months ago.
Kawhi should start the season in March
IMO
Embiid should start the season in March If they are able to trade away George
Let’s go ahead and have the teams play out the season and then we can just see. You know, rather than just declaring OKC the champs before the games start.
I mean they are currently Champs and lost no one so its there’s to lose rn.
We’ve had a different champ each year for, what, 7 or 8 years? They’re a good team that just played more games than any other team in the west and injuries are a thing for every team every year and their roster is not clearly superior to at least 2 other teams in the conference (Denver and Houston) with 2 others not far behind (Clippers and Minnesota). I, for one, am in no hurry to crown them the “on paper” champion and am looking forward to watching it play out over the next 9 months and 82 regular season games.
Just checked on the Suns Cap situation.
link to spotrac.com
Looks like they are now under both the second and the first apron – am i reading this right?
Yes, 2 M under the tax as well but they need to add 1 player that will put them a couple K over to get too 14 players- They can also use full MLE and Bi annual if they want now too
well spotrac just updated saying they have 3.3 now to tax
I had um at 2.1 and Yossi above said less than 2
Sometimes Spotrac needs a small update tho so Id go with Yossi for now
Yossi’s numbers ($2.075MM below the tax line) look right to me.
I agree, Yossi is probably correct to the dollar, my back of napkin math had it 2.1
A straight buyout would be fine in my eyes, stretching would be a nightmare.
All signs point to the stretch currently. This would be one of the finalists for worst move of the year if so
The suns have claimed that crown pretty consistently over the last few seasons.
Dumb arse should team up with Giannis — that team is a tailor made fit
It’s funny people think all these dudes care about is winning. LA> Milwaukee.
Does he get taxed on the new contract or the old contract in La? Loses money going to LA
Don’t think he cares a whole lot about that either considering he’s already made 320M in the league.
That’s a huge pay cut for Beal
I still don’t think I like his fit on the clippers because James harden is not a true point guard but harden is a better passer than Devin booker so it should be better than phoenix
Beal on the pistons would have been better
Hugh paycut? He went from getting paid 111mil over two years to getting paid 109mil over two years.
I also thought Detroit would be one of the best fits for him, but he probably never planned on going there.
Beal doesn’t have to be a starter. His best stretch in 24-25 was when he came off the bench. He looked like a higher-quality player than the opponent’s bench unit and generally made better decisions than when he was sharing the court with Booker and Durant.
He had 17 ppg on 30 mins/game on 53%/41%/86%, dribbled the ball out for them, didn’t turn it over too much, had a good shot selection. Also, he wasn’t picked on by the opponents’ best players on defence as they were resting.
Maybe that’s the best role for him.
Harden, Dunn, Kawhi, Colling and Zubac start, and he can come on later and share the court with Batum, Lopez, Derrick Jones, Kobe Brown, all of whom can defend, but can struggle to score.
Also, it was a lousy fit in Phoenix from the start. It was as though Mat Ishbia thought that the league was going to increase the size of the court and change the rules so that there were two balls in play at any time. There was never going to be enough touches or space for Booker, Durant, and Beal.
Surprised with Beal going to the Clippers. Obviously, at the end of the season he is going to decline his player option to sign a new long term deal. The Clippers will not have his Bird rights so at the most they can sign him for the non-taxpayer MLE. They also cannot sign and trade him for more than that.
Meanwhile the lakers will have at least $60 million in cap room. So, they can sign him for say $20 mill plus, or at least sign and trade him for that amount.
Maybe Beal is ok to play for the Wizards or the Nets in 2027 and beyond.
No one is signing Beal to a long tem deal. Especially for a lot of money.
There’s a reason why he had to do a buyout.
He may not be worth $52 million, but he is still worth $20-25 million. At least HE has to think so.
Last two years he shot 41% from 3 and 58% from 2. Last year he had 17PPG, 3.7 assists, 3.3 rebounds, and 1.1 steals. He will definitely get interest to sign for $20M plus next year if he does well this year. He likely thinks he us a $30 million plus player on his next contract.
Clippers will. Theres a reason he went there….
So basically swapping out Powell for Beal and Collins? Seems like a couple of good transactions
And Lopez
He has a players option so he can get another bag with a good year. The Suns will be mediocre for a long time unless they find a diamond in the draft with no picks.
So what exactly are the suns right now other than a mess. I guess their staring five are booker, green, brooks, Dunn?, Mark Williams (if healthy). I think they have something in Maluach, but this sure seems like a less than exciting lineup.
I actually had a sliver of hope for them till an hr ago .
I kinda like Dunn Ighodaro Fleming and am a huge fan of Khaman .
If they just could have practiced some patience for a year while getting all the kids some growth they could have sat a LOT better 365 days from now (w Beal in Tow) and gone a multitude of directions (all better) with getting away from Beal .
This feels like the classic case of rich guy can buy his way outta anything instead of just taking the L he created along with the punishments
Yeah. They actually have drafted well in recent years. Wish they would try and pick up some picks instead of trading them away. Draft night was weird. Trading 29 and next year’s late 1st for Williams, then drafting Khaman. Then turning around and spending 4 seconds to get Fleming at 31 when they could have had him with 29 if they had kept it. Just looks sloppy.
Suns have another move or two to make, they are probably keeping an eye on resetting their tax bill.
Deals will be reported now by the Warriors, Lakers and Bucks with the Beal signing that was holding up deals.
Warriors will still be waiting for a resolution to Kuminga’s situation.
True… he is really messing them up. They only have 10 players signed without anyone decent left available.
Yep Clippers …. Ballmer wants to win badly. He is committed to that. So he will take chances on players.
It’s a good place for Beal. At 32 yrs old. Probably has one more decent contract in him. If he plays well this year. He’s in his right position. With a better mix of players for chemistry. Clippers won 51 gms last yr. Were the 4th seed in the West.
I view the Phoenix Suns as just a total mess, of their own doings, but maybe they will somehow end up smelling like a rose, though I doubt it.
Apparently LeBron is not the attraction he thinks he is.
Worse…I need a big. Ok, we just traded your big, have you met Luka Doncic? We’re now prioritising point of attack defensively. We can put up with luka being so so in this department because of his age. We aren’t putting up with you being completely useless on D while blaming others at forty. Soon as Bron is gone, guys will be lining up again to join the lakers.
Oh, he is.
Now with the Beal Fiasco going to the Clippers, how long before he comes down with an injury, seem like he only played every 2 games then sat out the next 3 it was a pattern after a while in Phoenix. Good luck Clippers, Beal is not a team player, he is basically done as a star player at 33. He is just collecting a check now, he is not in it for a ring, it’s where he can go and get a check and not play a full season and just kick back with the family now that he has the buyout in his pocket. It was either taking the buyout or don’t play this season and just stay away. That is why he took the buyout.
Mat Ishbia has certainly lit a lot of money on fire in his tenure as Suns’ owner.
CLIPS should go harder at this ….. free up 2 spots and sign Russ and CP3.
The Suns are a dumpster fire.
It’s a great deal for the Clippers… little risk involved but I am not and have never been a BB fan. What he brings in points he loses with his lack of defence… never saw him as much more than an overrated 3rd option on a good team. I guess he’ll fit in well then with the Beard an KL!
Harden Beal Kawhi Collins Zubac
Elite starting 5
Dunn Bogi DJJ Batum Lopez
Really solid depth
On paper that’s a top 5 team, they’ve got a good head coach, everyone knows Kawhi will miss a bunch of time to save himself for the playoffs but really there is no excuses