Three-time All-Star guard signs with Warriors rival

Bradley Beal completed his buyout with the Phoenix Suns and joined the Los Angeles Clippers for the remainder of their mid-level exception. Not the Warriors.

It’s a familiar story. The Golden State Warriors are pursuing, interested in, linked to, evaluating, kicking the tires on, internally discussing, or making calls about a veteran star. Then that star goes elsewhere.

That’s happened again, as three-time All-Star Bradley Beal completed a buyout of the remaining $110M on his contract with the Phoenix Suns to sign a two-year deal for $11M with the Los Angeles Clippers. Beal gave up nearly $14M in the buyout so the Suns could comply with NBA rules (only 15 percent of the salary cap can go to buyouts), but has a player option for 2026-27 which will allow him to become a free agent next summer.

Admittedly, the odds were always long that Beal would land in San Francisco. The Clippers traded guard Norman Powell to the Miami Heat the same day that the news of Beal’s impending buyout broke, leading one to reasonably assume that Beal took the buyout knowing he had a landing spot. The Clippers were able to offer Beal more money than the Warriors could, assuming that Golden State’s mid-level exception has at least been partially earmarked for Al Horford, plus a starting job.

It’s also important to remember that the Clippers are the unquestioned leaders in rehabilitating bought-out former All-Stars. Last season, Ben Simmons joined the Clippers and contributed as a defensive-minded reserve after the Brooklyn Nets bought him out. Russell Westbrook joined the Clippers after a buyout from the Utah Jazz in 2023. Westbrook’s roster spot became available when the Clippers dumped John Wall, who they signed after a buyout from the Houston Rockets.

Playing for the Clippers has a lot of appeal for veterans. They’re located in Los Angeles, playing in the NBA’s newest arena with some of the fanciest team facilities and the NBA’s wealthiest owner, Steve Ballmer. There’s plenty of fun veterans to hang out with, including:

• James Harden, a man so committed to having a good time that a strip club in Houston hung a banner to honor his patronage.
• Brook “Splash Mountain” Lopez, a man with V.I.P. access to Disneyland.
• Nic Batum, who is French.
• Kawhi Leonard, who is a fun guy.

The Warriors could have used Beal’s scoring, but they’ve been limited in their moves thanks to the restricted free agency of Jonathan Kuminga. There doesn’t appear to be a market for any of the four top restricted free agents — Kuminga, Josh Giddey of the Chicago Bulls, Quentin Grimes of the Philadelphia 76ers, and Cam Thomas of the Brooklyn Nets — which has limited their teams’ activities. Teams have the right to match any free-agent offer sheet to an RFA as long as they make a qualifying offer, but absent a suitor willing to tie up their cap space with such an offer, negotiations often drag on for months.

The only way the team could have cleared space would be to renounce Kuminga entirely. Besides, it’s not clear that Beal was ever actually available to anyone but the Clippers.

What’s the result of all this activity? The Clippers have gotten fearsome by adding Lopez and Beal on bargain deals and trading for John Collins, who looks to be their first traditional power forward in years. The bench features Bogdan Bogdanovic, dunk champion Derrick Jones, Jr., Lopez, Batum, and Kris Dunn, who would have made the All-Defensive team if not for the new rules on awards eligibility.

The downside for the Clippers is that Kawhi Leonard, Lopez, and Beal don’t have the best health records, but the bench seems designed to cover a lot of potential absences.

The Suns have gotten worse and also given themselves a $19M hole in their salary cap for the next five seasons by stretching Beal. Phoenix will be paying Beal and Devin Booker around $80M per season through 2030, and one of them won’t even be on the team. They did make sure to keep one of Draymond Green’s mortal enemies on the roster, however. After dealing away Jusuf Nurkic during the season, they got longtime Green nemesis Dillon Brooks back in the Kevin Durant trade, along with new Draymond adversary Jalen “Go Paint Your Nails” Green.

It remains to be seen how much Beal has left in the tank, but he only turned 32 last month. It’s too early to tell if this signing could change the balance of power in the Western Conference, but I think we can say with confidence that Beal will have a monster scoring effort or game-winning shot in at least one of the Warriors’ four matchups with the Clippers next season. And then he’s going to miss three weeks with a hamstring strain.