Suns Rumors: Bradley Beal could get sent back East (and not to the Heat)

The NBA's trade deadline is now less than two weeks away, and the Phoenix Suns continue to hear their name brought up in any potential Jimmy Butler deals that could get done. Butler has just been suspended - this time indefinitely - by the Miami Heat, and it looks increasingly likely he will be playing elsewhere once the deadline has passed.

It has long been accepted that the Heat would have no interest in taking Bradley Beal back in any potential deal, because like the Suns they'd then be on the hook to pay him $110 million across the next two season. This despite Phoenix actually being 7-2 since moving Beal to the bench, albeit during a soft period in their schedule.

A new suitor in the East could be emerging to take Beal on.

That would be the Chicago Bulls, who let's be honest have a history of swinging for the bleachers on guys who you would class as that level below true superstar. Everybody loves multiple time All-Star Nikola Vucevic, but the Bulls loss that trade badly to the Orlando Magic. The same is true of Zach LaVine, who is actually having a nice campaign this season.

He has rehabbed his own trade value some in The Windy City, although DeMar DeRozan was unable to do the same thing before heading to the Sacramento Kings. The point is the Bulls - for whatever reason - continue to talk themselves into expensive stars who could work best as the third best player on a title team. Only they keep bunching them together, so they remain stuck in the middle.

Which is why Beal makes sense even if, well he doesn't actually make sense. So said Brian Windhorst on his Hoop Collective podcast recently, going so far as to say on the record that the Suns and Bulls have had conversations as part of a wider Butler deal.

While Windhorst stopped short of confirming that Beal would be the player heading to Chicago - with Butler to Phoenix and a third player to Miami - he also said that if you join the dots logically, that Beal is the most obvious candidate to be moved. It sure isn't Jusuf Nurkic who the Bulls are interested in bringing onboard at this point.

This conversation always comes back to Beal's no trade clause, but here is where it gets interesting. Kevin O'Connor recently said on the Bill Simmons Podcast that - of all of the locations that Beal's agent Mark Bartelstein has publically come out and said his client does not want to get traded to - Chicago is not one of them.

Perhaps this is because the Bulls are such a non-factor right now that they didn't even warrant mentioning. That makes sense, although the other piece of information worth considering here is that Beal played for Bulls' head coach Billy Donovan when the pair were at the University of Florida. If anybody knows how to get the best out of Beal, it is surely Donovan.

This could also be a way for Beal to play for a big market - even if the Bulls are far from contenders right now - get paid and be restored to the starting lineup. Playing alongside Lonzo Ball, he could also go back to doing what he does best. Scoring the basketball and not having to worry about sometimes acting as the creator for others, like he does in Phoenix.

It feels like there's some genuine smoke here. Whether it happens or not is another story, but who can forget Windhorst nailing it a few years back when the Utah Jazz blew it up. You wouldn't think Beal to Chicago makes sense, and yet it might be the only logical landing spot remaining for him in the league that also nets the Suns their dream target in Butler. One to watch here.