The stupidly obvious reason Bradley Beal can still succeed with the Suns

The Phoenix Suns are making moves this offseason - and hard as they might try - getting rid of Bradley Beal doesn't look like it is going to be one of them. The franchise stuck with the 31-year-old as a result of the no-trade clause in his contract, and the fact he's making a lot of money to play basketball in a state that his family appear to have settled well in.

The Suns could buy Beal out of the remaining two years on his deal, but that would require him to agree to taking roughly $30 million less than the $110 million he is still owed. Hard to see that happening, while a buyout wouldn't exactly solve all of Phoenix's problems either. Yes he'd no longer be on the roster, but that wouldn't fix their horrible cap situation outright.

New teammates around Beal could see him flourish in Phoenix.

Getting lost in all of this however is the fact that although Beal has underwhelmed with the Suns, the rosters he has been a part of haven't gotten the best out of him. That might sound like a cop out - if anything it is on Beal to figure it out as the third star on a Devin Booker led team - but these two facts can be true. Beal hasn't figured that part out, but the roster he's a part of doesn't play to his strengths.

Which is where the upcoming trade of Kevin Durant comes into play. The Suns need their third best player - the role Beal has had the last two seasons, although in year one he gave that up to Grayson Allen - ideally to be defensive-minded, and to act as a foil for Booker. But we know that's not Beal's strength, he is capable of being a 30 point a night scorer for stretches.

The supposed remedy to this was to bring Beal off the bench last season - and although it was a bad campaign all round - there were moments where that particular move looked ok. Beal was able to have the ball in his hands more, call his own number and defensively if nothing else showed some of the quickness of younger years to stay in front of speedy guards.

If the Suns get a center like Kel'el Ware from the Miami Heat for Durant - or indeed bring Bridges back to The Valley - then we could see the best of Beal in a Suns' uniform. It might even make sense to start him again, and as long as the Suns improve on having the fourth worst defense during the regular season (giving up 117.7 points per game), then Beal could also profit.

Owner Mat Ishbia has to hope that this can be the case, and also that new head coach Jordan Ott can get more out of the former Washington Wizard. Beal didn't appear to get on much with either Frank Vogel or Mike Budenholzer - but then again - neither did most players. Perhaps if Ott can connect with him - combined with more defensive-minded teammates - Beal can excel once more.

This is an extremely optimistic outlook, but right now that's all the Suns have. They're most certainly stuck with Beal, and buying him out brings with it its own set of problems. They would be making a big mistake re-tooling with Beal's skills in mind - but they should be looking to get better defensively and add a new center anyway - which could have the by-product of turning Beal's fortunes around.