Bradley Beal sensationally flames Suns one last time

Bradley Beal had a return to The Valley to forget on Thursday, as a perfect storm of events culminated in the Phoenix Suns beating the L.A. Clippers, Beal himself having an awful game, and Jalen Green making his season debut and putting up 29 points in a superb performance. Once that immediately shut down the notion that he and Devin Booker cannot co-exist in the same backcourt.

Back to Beal though and this was worse than bad, as he had five points and didn't do much of anything in the 20 plus minutes he was on the court. Which itself was not a given as a result of missing some game time through injury already this season. A situation Suns fans were depressingly familiar with in his time in Phoenix.

Beal slams Suns for failing to use him properly.

In the aftermath of the contest, Beal tried extremely hard to come across like this was just another game for the Clippers, before then following that up by coming across as salty. He claimed that it was understandable that fans would boo - it's a part of the experience according to Beal - and to his credit he did sign autographs and pose for pictures.

But he also framed the break-up as something that only the Suns wanted, but it was his thoughts on getting up 14 shots in the game - of which he made two - that was the most outrageous to hear. Beal claiming that the Suns didn't allow him to be "that guy", before questioning when the last time he got to take 14 shots for his former team was.

Truly this was the talk of a player who was reaching for reasons to justify being bought out and landing in Los Angeles, because Beal actually averaged over 13 attempts per game in each of his two seasons with the franchise. That first year it was 13.9, as close as you can get to that magical 14 that appears to mean so much to him.

Contrast that with his time with the Clippers to date, in which he has taken less than eight field goal attempts each game. Playing alongside Kawhi Leonard and James Harden, this is to be expected and Beal appears to be cool with it. So why was it different when Booker and Kevin Durant were his teammates instead?

So too was saying that the Clippers whooped the Suns in their first meeting of the season - which they did - and that it was just another game like the subsequent loss was. If it was "just another game", then Beal wouldn't have found it necessary to bring it up at all.

Bradley Beal was never going to be anything other than the third options offensively for the Suns - and as a result of his own body breaking down - he generally wasn't even that. Grayson Allen filling in admirably much of the time. To say the Suns didn't use him properly is sour grapes, because how he was used and played then looks an awful lot like how he's playing for the Clippers. Which is not good.