Veteran guard Bradley Beal has reached an agreement on a buyout with the Suns and will be placed on waivers, reports Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link).
After he clears waivers and becomes a free agent, Beal intends to sign with the Clippers on a two-year, $11MM deal that will include a second-year player option, agent Mark Bartelstein tells Charania.
A buyout had long been the anticipated outcome for Beal, with John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7 suggesting back in April that there was a “zero percent chance” of the three-time All-Star returning to Phoenix for the 2025/26 season. While the Suns explored trade options for Beal, his two-year, $111MM contract and no-trade clause made it virtually impossible for the team to move him, so the two sides began discussing a buyout early in free agency.
As we wrote at that time, in order for the Suns to use the stretch provision on Beal and spread out his remaining salary across five seasons (instead of two), he would have to give back roughly $13.88MM in a buyout agreement — a team isn’t permitted to carry stretched salary totaling more than 15% of the salary cap, and Phoenix had previously used the stretch provision on Nassir Little and E.J. Liddell.
According to Fred Katz of The Athletic (Twitter link), Beal will indeed give back that required $13.88MM in the buyout agreement, giving the Suns the option of stretching his $96.9MM in remaining salary. And they’re virtually certain to take that path, tweets Gerald Bourguet of PHNX Sports.
More to come…