Bradley Beal was linked to trade talks for years, but when a deal finally came together, it went to the Phoenix Suns, who no one thought would be interested. The Suns were not in the running for Beal because they already had great perimeter players like Kevin Durant and Devin Booker and needed the trade assets that a player of Beal’s level would require. In the first writing of a season-long diary he will keep with Andscaped, Beal even said on Monday that his first choice was to join another team.
“So, Miami Heat was my first choice. This is why we call it Miami. “Pres. Pat Riley of Miami says, ‘Well, I’ll talk to owner Micky Arison and figure it out,'” Beal began. Besides the Suns, the New York Knicks, Brooklyn Nets, Sacramento Kings, and Milwaukee Bucks were also interested, he wrote. But Suns owner Mat Ishbia was the first to contact him. He still had to wait on the Heat.
‘OK, what’s Miami doing?'” Putting off things’ And in the end, Miami said they could not do it. But for sure, it opened my eyes. That’s why I said I went into everything with an open mind. And out of the blue, Phoenix shows up as a dark horse. Their aggression pushed me over the edge that won.”
We have a better idea of what kept the Heat going. A short time after the Beal trade, Damian Lillard, a star for the Portland Trail Blazers, then asked to be moved to only the Heat. Miami probably thought he was the best veteran guard and spent most of the summer trying to get him. In the end, the Heat didn’t get anything when the Blazers traded Lillard to the Bucks in the most significant trade of the summer.
We can now look back and ask ourselves if the Heat made the right choice. They were clearly at a loss in the talks with Lillard because they didn’t have many trade assets in a field that was very open despite Lillard’s protests. Beal, on the other hand, didn’t want to move. He could choose his team, which Lillard couldn’t do. Beal’s “no-trade” rule was strong enough that Washington couldn’t even get as much in return for him. Miami might have been able to get Beal for much less than what it was willing to pay for Lillard.
No one knows the whole truth. Beal has the Sun sign. We call Lillard a Buck. There are no new stars on the Heat. That didn’t stop the Heat from making it to the Finals last year, but it gives their opponents a huge advantage in this year’s race. The Heat will have to think about what could have been if Beal had been on the team if they don’t get another star player before the trade deadline in February or beat the odds and make it back to the Finals without one.
