There is no doubt the Bradley Beal disaster has been the worst decision the Phoenix Suns have made this decade. He's still on the books through the rest of the decade, and having him continue to eat into valuable cap space is hurting this team badly. Yet, despite the move backfiring, the Suns have done a solid job of rebounding with their new roster.
Suns have done amazing job of building roster despite buying Beal out
The franchise still owes close to $100 million to Beal for him not to play for them, while they have a similar (albeit significantly cheaper) setup with both Nassir Little and E.J. Liddell. Despite this clearly hindering the Suns' ability to build a winner around Devin Booker, Yossi Gozlan of the Third Apron Podcast has given the Suns some much-needed props for how they've handled business.
In a recent conversation with Gerald Bourguet, he could only marvel at their ability to trade for Miles Bridges and sign Luke Kennard outright in free agency, while also bringing back firm fan favorite Collin Gillespie and Jordan Goodwin on extensions.
"Not a very big payroll with 11 players at about $162 million, however, they do have a lot of dead money inflating that amount and eliminating a lot of their flexibility. About $186 million in total salaries."
Beal is taking up the vast majority of that, yet the Suns still managed to try and improve.
Dillon Brooks was taken care of with an extension to ensure he will be sticking around long-term as well. To complete all of this business, while also waiving Haywood Highsmith to ensure they have an open roster spot when required, is amazing when you consider where the Suns were 12 months ago.
The Suns managed to win 45 games and have a head coach in Jordan Ott who looks like he will be around for the long-term, and the organization have done a brilliant job of putting the right people in positions away from the court to succeed. An area where they can spend as much money as they want, even if owner Mat Ishbia's coffers recently took a monstrous hit.
Suns will still struggle to break through despite moving on from Beal
As great as it is to see the Suns not become defined by the mistake that was Beal, their willingness to part with first-round picks (painfully exposed once more in the Miles Bridges deal) means they will never become true contenders while the former Washington Wizard is on the books.
They keep giving away their future whenever they can in favor of making themselves a tad bit better in the present.
This has already led to a playoff appearance, while Booker appears content. But with other teams doing much more to ensure their star players are being used correctly, there is a limit to how successful this plan can be. It's still better than sinking to the bottom of the standings with the weight that is Bradley Beal, though.
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