Photo by Tyler McFarland/Clarkson Creative/Getty Images
The Phoenix Suns’ roadblock to success and how to fix it. I think.
The
Phoenix Suns took the floor against the
Toronto Raptors on Monday night, and for the 21st time this season, they did so without Bradley Beal. Their third amigo. Their $50 million man. Another game, another absence. The result? A dominating 40-point win. The team is now 11-10 in games in which he has missed.
Beal has now missed 37% of all possible games since arriving in Phoenix in 2023, a number that looms larger with each passing night.
As the season winds down, so too does the hope of a championship. At this point, even making the playoffs feels like a fading dream. And with that harsh reality settling in, the conversation is shifting. The focus is no longer on this team’s potential but on how to fix what’s clearly broken. The trade machines — dormant since the deadline — are whirring back to life.
Every game feels less like a battle for postseason positioning and more like a scouting mission, a search for teams on the brink, organizations desperate to take the next step. Because right now, it’s not about whether the Suns can make the playoffs. It’s about figuring out which franchises need what the Suns can offer. And whether Phoenix has the courage to make the moves that will finally set them on the right path.
We’ve seen the broad strokes of what lies ahead for the Suns. Trade Kevin Durant. Trade Devin Booker. No one even mentions trading Bradley Beal. His no-trade clause ensures that. He’s locked in, immovable. And yet, I believe his contract is the very thing clogging the pathway to future success.
Building around Booker is the right move, if the front office can maneuver the roster correctly. Maybe Durant stays. Maybe he doesn’t. But one thing is clear: Beal cannot be part of this team’s future. He’s redundant, he’s injury-prone, he’s on the back end of his prime, and his contract is an anchor weighing down any hopes of sustainable roster flexibility. Keeping him isn’t just a luxury the Suns can’t afford. It’s a fundamental and foundational mistake.
So, what do you do?
I have an idea. Waive and stretch him. I think.
The new CBA and its rules are a labyrinth of complexity. Trying to grasp every nuance and fine print is like unraveling the dream levels in
Inception while simultaneously making sense of
Tenet’s time inversion and counting hours as years on Miller’s planet in
Interstellar. Damn you, Christopher Nolan.
There’s a chance that what I’m about to propose isn’t even feasible because a team can’t stretch a player’s salary if the portion being stretched pushes their payroll beyond 15% of the salary cap. And since the Suns have already waived and stretched Nassir Little and EJ Liddell, that option may be off the table.
I ran the scenario by Bobby Marks, ESPN’s NBA Front Office Insider, and on the surface, it seems possible. But once again, CBA mechanics are a nightmare. Just when you think you’ve figured them out, there’s another twist waiting to throw everything into chaos.
For the sake of argument, and hopes that there is another loophole within the loophole of loopholes, you can. Waiving and tetcting Bradley Beal. Yeah, it stings. Both in the short term and, to a degree, the long term. But you free yourself from that contract. You unlock financial flexibility. You get under the second apron. And over time, that stretched money becomes less of a burden. Most importantly, you accomplish the one thing this franchise desperately needs: getting off of Bradley Beal.
How would you do it? What are the benefits? Let’s break it down.
The Mechanics of a Waive and Stretch
If the Phoenix Suns were to waive and stretch Bradley Beal in the upcoming offseason, the cost would be determined by the remaining guaranteed salary on his contract and the timing of the waiver. Bradley Beal has the following guaranteed base salaries remaining on his contract after the 2024-25 season:
- 2025-26: $53.7 million
- 2026-27: $57.1 million
The total remaining guaranteed salary after the 2024-25 season is $53.7 million + $57.1 million = $110.8 million.
If a player is waived between July 1st and August 31st, their remaining salary is paid over twice the number of years remaining on their contract, plus one. In this case, two seasons are remaining on Beal’s contract after 2024-25. Therefore, the remaining salary would be spread over (2 * 2) + 1 = 5 years.
If the Suns waive and stretch Beal between July 1 and August 31 of 2025, his remaining $110.8 million would be spread over five seasons, resulting in an annual cap hit of approximately $22.1 million from 2025-26 through 2029-30.
Rather than absorbing cap hits of $53.7 million and $57.1 million over the next two seasons, the Suns would distribute the financial impact more evenly, carrying a $22.1 million hit each year for five years. While the team would still be responsible for paying Beal the full amount, this approach could provide greater cap flexibility in the short term, allowing for more maneuverability in roster construction.
Benefits of a Waive and Strech: The Cap Situation
So $22.1 million a year to get off of the Beal contract for the next five years. Ouch. Or is it?
Of course, this isn’t an ideal solution. Paying someone $22.1 million annually for five seasons just to not play for you is far from desirable. Simply being in this predicament is bad enough. But if Beal is a major obstacle to future success, and if the priority is shedding salary to retool around Devin Booker and Kevin Durant, it might be the necessary move.
Stretching Beal’s contract would shave $22.1 million off the Suns’ payroll, bringing them closer to slipping under the second apron. As it stands, the team is $25.9 million over the second apron and $36.2 million over the first.
Waiving and stretching Beal — along with other cost-cutting moves like waiving Cody Martin and Vasa Micic — could get them under that crucial second apron, unlocking much-needed flexibility for future roster construction.
A reminder of what life above the second apron entails: no mid-level exception, no aggregating multiple players in trades, no sign-and-trades to acquire players, and no sending cash in deals. Brutal.
The first apron isn’t exactly a cakewalk either, but it’s less restrictive. Teams above it can’t sign bought-out players who were making more than the non-taxpayer mid-level exception. They also can’t take back more salary than they send out in trades or use trade exceptions created the prior season. It’s limiting, but not nearly as suffocating as the second apron.
Waiving and stretching Beal gets the Suns under the second apron, a hurdle that, in itself, might justify the move.
Benefits of a Waive and Strech: Long-Term Implications
That $22.1 million stings. No doubt about it. It’s not just dead money; it’s a self-inflicted wound, a financial scar that lingers for five seasons. But the real pain isn’t in the next three years, when Beal would still be under contract anyway. It’s in years four and five, when the Suns should have been free of him, yet they’d still be paying for a player long gone.
Preposterous? Maybe. Or maybe not.
Let’s put that $22.1 million in perspective. In the context of the 2024-25 salary cap, set at $140.6 million, it accounts for 15.7% of the team’s total cap. A significant chunk. Having that much tied up in a player who isn’t even on the roster? Brutal. Like biting into a fresh pico de gallo only to find a jalapeño you weren’t ready for.
But here’s the thing: $22.1 million in 2024-25 isn’t the same as the $22.1 million will be in 2029-30.
So while $22.1 million a year over five seasons feels like a punch to the gut, context matters. The NBA’s salary cap has steadily risen at an average rate of 5.76% over the past five years, climbing from $109.1 million in 2020 to $140.6 million in 2024-25. If that trend continues, we’re looking at a projected cap of $177.3 million in 2029-30. That means Beal’s $22.1 million cap hit would drop from 15.7% of the cap today to just 12.4%—a 3.3% decrease. Doesn’t seem like much? Well, that 3.3% translates to roughly a $5.9 million player.
But then there’s the looming TV deal.
The NBA’s new broadcast rights agreement is expected to inject a massive influx of revenue into the league. And while the current CBA prevents another 2016-style cap spike — where teams suddenly had way more money to spend than they knew what to do with — the cap can still rise by a maximum of 10% per season. If that happens, the 2029-30 cap could reach $226.4 million. In that scenario, Beal’s $22.1 million would account for just 9.7% of the cap, a far cry from the 15.7% it represents today. That 6% drop? It’s the equivalent of a $13.6 million contract.
So, while waiving and stretching Beal is painful now, the financial burden shrinks over time. The question is whether the Suns are willing to endure that initial sting to create the roster flexibility they desperately need.
Benefits of a Waive and Strech: Buh Bye Beal
It feels harsh to say it so bluntly, because I do respect the man behind the contract. Bradley Beal isn’t some villain. He’s one of the more engaging, likable personalities on this team. On a roster that often feels too serious for its own good, Beal brings levity. He’s playful. He’s well-liked.
But that doesn’t change the reality.
For all the reasons I’ve laid out, Beal has to go. That no-trade clause has to go. And if waiving and stretching his contract is the only way to do it —short of waiting for it to expire — then you do it. No team is trading for him. There is no market. Only a fool would make that move. Awkward, isn’t it?
I’ve said it before: the Suns are operating within a short, fragile window built around Devin Booker and Kevin Durant. And Beal’s contract? It’s been a lock on that window. Snip it off. Move forward. Who cares where he ends up? Even if we all know it’ll be the
Lakers (which we know is what would happen), and even if we all know it’ll come back to haunt us.
This is the way.
That, in my opinion, is step one. Whether the Suns ultimately decide to trade Kevin Durant this offseason is another debate entirely, one we’ll continue to explore in the months ahead. But this is where we’re at. Short-term pain or long-term pain. But pain nonetheless.
Of course, you make the attempt to trade Beal. You test the market, pitching Beal as a valuable asset with only two years remaining on his deal. You downplay the no-trade clause, sidestep the looming $57.1 million player option he’ll likely pick up, and instead focus on the narrative. You sell the smile, the history, the promise of what he could bring to a new team, a new city, a new chapter. You paint the picture of his potential impact on a franchise, an all-star, a leader, a game-changer. You give the illusion of opportunity, hoping someone takes the bait.
And when you can’t trade Beal, you go to Plan B.
Imagine a world where they waive and stretch Bradley Beal, finally regaining the ability to build a flexible, functional roster. Maybe they do trade Durant, bringing back draft capital and a quality player in return. Suddenly, there’s a path forward. A real foundation for a retool. The framework would be in place.
All I can hope is that someone within the Suns’ organization has already thought about this. Laid it all out and put it in front of Josh Bartelstein and James Jones. And if not? If you happen to work for the Suns and you’re reading this, do me a favor: forward this article to them. They need to know this option exists. They need to think big picture.
Because that’s exactly what they didn’t do when they traded for Bradley Beal two summers ago. And that’s why we’re here. Is this the ultimate path I believe the Suns should take? Meh. Probably not. But right now, we’re in the “let’s figure out how to fix this” phase, and that means exploring every possible option.
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