Brian Windhorst Is Back At It After Suggesting The Miami Heat And The Milwaukee Bucks Are The Front Runners To Trade For Bradley Beal

Michael Reaves. Getty Images.

Alright, you know what time it is

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How could we not use the Windhorst meme at a time like this with a report like that? I don't care if it's played out. It still makes me chuckle every time.

Now let's break down what he says. For starters, as we know it is a law that once we get to the offseason, every single NBA player must be tied to the Heat, and the Heat must be talked about has a team that's a favorite to land said NBA player. It happens every offseason with every player mentioned in rumors. Recently, it's resulted in PJ Tucker and Kyle Lowry, but this is just part of the NBA cycle. 

What makes this entire situation tricky is it really doesn't matter who has the best trade package to potentially offer the Wizards. The only thing that matters is where Beal wants to go. If he doesn't want to go to MIA, then it doesn't matter what their package is. If he doesn't want to go to MIL, same thing. If he doesn't want to go somewhere like BOS, it won't matter what they throw in. 

The same is true for the opposite as well. If Beal makes it clear that he will only go to Team X, that instantly kills the value of the package that team has to send. Maybe that means MIA can pull it off by not including Herro, we just don't know at the point.

What's interesting about Windy is reporting here is the inclusion of MIL, because that gets very complicated. For them to get to Beal's salary isn't that easy

One would think it requires Middleton to opt into his player option and then get traded, which….seems like a stretch. I suppose maybe there could be something around Holiday, but then how are the Bucks replacing their starting point guard. Maybe CP3 if he gets waived or something? Not to mention, Holiday has a player option for next season at $37M, so who knows if WSH is even interested in something like that. 

If you're perhaps tired of this story already, I have some bad news for you. Things are only going to heat up and there are going to be more and more reports like this as we get closer to next Thursday's Draft and then the start of free agency on 7/1. Given the new league year shifts on that 7/1 date, it would not surprise me if we saw a deal happen before then that uses 2022-23 money as opposed to 2023-24 money from the new league year. Just in terms of matching Beal's salary, there's a $3M difference there if it happens before 7/1. 

Given the heater Windy is sort of on lately when it comes to these things, I have no doubt this is probably true, or at least what he's been told. The million dollar question is does any of it matter unless Beal is on board? Something tells me Tommy Sheppard giving him that full no trade clause as a parting gift is going to end up killing the return the Wizards are going to get for Beal when you also factor in his contract, which means there will probably be some upset fanbases when we see the final trade price. 

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Who that team is and what that price ultimately lands at is anybody's guess at this point.