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5 hours ago
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It's official. The Suns have bought out the contract of Bradley Beal.
He'll be headed to Los Angeles to play with the Clippers next season.
This is a quality addition for the Clippers, but the Suns can claim victory here after getting rid of a contract that opens up a lot of financial relief.
How does this buyout help Phoenix?
ESPN's Shams Charania reported, "This now gives the Suns increased team-building flexibility by taking them out of the first and second aprons, providing access to more tradeable draft picks in the future, and opening up part of the mid-level exception to utilize."
Before the buyout, Beal had two years left on his contract, including a player option for the 2026-27 NBA season.
He was set to make well north of $50 million per year on that deal.
After the Suns traded away Kevin Durant to the Rockets, it was clear that deciding on what to do with Beal was the next item to check off on their offseason to-do list.
Before buying out that contract, they secured an extension with franchise player Devin Booker, whom they've made it clear was who they will be building their roster around.
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As Shams details, this contract buyout opens up chances to make changes and additions to their roster that they couldn't do with Beal's contract still in Phoenix.
They likely will enter at least a year or two-year period of not being a contender or top team in the West.
Getting under the first and second aprons will help them avoid facing penalties that would have been pointless to deal with, while not producing any winning basketball that makes it worthwhile.
Even if the Beal contract being on the team was the franchise's fault to begin with, they were able to get rid of it and can now move forward in the rebuild process without that lingering in the back of their mind.
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