00:00Big news yesterday around the association featuring the Phoenix Suns and the Los Angeles Clippers.
00:06Bradley Beal, DRS, bought out of the remainder of his deal in Phoenix
00:11and intends to sign a two-year, $11 million deal with L.A.
00:18Again, the Clippers adding some veteran firepower.
00:21The 32-year-old Beal to their starting five and another offensive threat from the scoring perspective.
00:27If this deal happened in 2018, the Clippers would be the championship favorites.
00:33L.A. is still not, despite the acquisition of Beal yesterday.
00:37But you say Kawhi Leonard, James Harden, and Bradley Beal,
00:42and it does kind of hearken the idea that L.A. is going for it out in the Western Conference.
00:48Of course, father time and injuries and health could be a big conversation for the Clippers once again.
00:54What do you make of Bradley Beal?
00:56Well, now joining the Clips.
00:58Yeah, going for it.
00:59Maybe going for the early bird buffet there at, what, 4 p.m.
01:02or if you get like a two-for-one.
01:04Like, I don't know what we're going for at this point now because it hasn't worked out in the past.
01:07Like, what is going to change?
01:09Like, are we also understanding that Kawhi Leonard is mysteriously going to play 75 games next year,
01:13be extremely healthy once he gets to the playoffs?
01:15And James Harden, who's a great basketball player, but he's fighting father time as well.
01:19Bradley Beal's never won anything in the NBA.
01:21He's going to be that missing piece to put you over the top.
01:23Like, remember the 1980 Phillies, all those struggles in the late 1970s?
01:27Mike Schmidt and the boys, Larry Boa, couldn't get over the top.
01:29Oh, they got Pete Rose.
01:30Why?
01:31Because he's a known winner and showed them exactly what it takes to get done, and they won it in 1980.
01:36That's not the case here.
01:37Like, hey, we're bringing in Bradley Beal.
01:38He's like Robert Orr.
01:39He's got like 10 championships.
01:41He can walk us through some tough spots.
01:42He knows nothing about winning.
01:44He knows about collecting a paycheck and getting his.
01:47That's it.
01:47So now he goes to L.A.
01:49It's like, hey, man, I look up on the rafters in Los Angeles.
01:51Yeah, you used to at the Staples Center back in the day when all of those banners said Los Angeles Lakers.
01:56And now you go to the Intuit Dome and you look around.
01:59Is there a single banner in that place?
02:01Or are they still hanging like Blake Griffin, like monster posters up in the top so you can take a look and cover up the old Laker banners?
02:07You know what I mean?
02:07Like, what are we doing with L.A.?
02:09This doesn't move the needle at all for me.
02:11Is it a decent move at a price?
02:13Yes, but the people getting excited that Bradley Beal went to L.A. does nothing for me.
02:18It's like the Russell Westbrook effect where no matter where Russ Westbrook went, he is going to clog up the spotlight, want to get his, and could give a damn about winning.
02:26That's Bradley Beal in a nutshell.
02:29Yeah, so DRS, Bradley Beal has had a very interesting NBA career.
02:33He was the third overall pick by the Wizards.
02:35There was a lot of hype at the time in the nation's capital.
02:38John Wall, Bradley Beal, could these two dynamic guards lead Washington to relevancy we had not seen in a very long time?
02:46The answer in 11 years for Beal, no.
02:48But the answer was also filled with a ton of dollar signs and large payouts.
02:53There was hope for Bradley Beal joining Kevin Durant and Devin Booker in the Valley to be a true championship contender in Phoenix.
03:00Did not happen.
03:01In fact, in his last two years, DRS with the Suns, Bradley Beal averaged 18.2 points per game in 2023-24, two years ago.
03:11Last year came off the bench, which was a big story, and averaged 17 points per game.
03:17That was the first time in nearly a decade that Bradley Beal averaged fewer than 20 points per game.
03:23Because in his final seven years with the Wizards, when he was an All-Star three times, he averaged at least 23 points per game each and every season for those seven years prior to when he joined the Suns.
03:37So what exactly are we getting out of Bradley Beal, who turned 32 earlier this summer?
03:4215 points a game?
03:44Great.
03:44If you ask me, and this might sound crazy, as a complimentary piece to Kawhi Leonard and James Harden with the emergence of the big man in the front quarter meets the Zubats,
03:54I would rather have Norm Powell, big will, to spread the floor than I would Bradley Beal.
04:00It comes down to this.
04:01Like, it's simple.
04:02Like, the NBA explains things in contractual terms, if that makes sense, Ben.
04:07That means what?
04:08But Bradley Beal is so good that a team goes, brother, here's $100 million.
04:14Just please leave.
04:17That's all I need to see.
04:19You're not buying out good basketball players at hundreds of millions of dollars because you thought that guy could play and somebody else is going to get a steal.
04:27Buyer beware of what you get for the Clippers.
04:30You just got a player, once again, that an organization said, here is $100 million.
04:36Damn it.
04:36Just get out of here.
04:37Playing exactly 53 games did Beal in each of his two years with the Phoenix Suns.
04:45Again, first 11 in Washington, last two with Phoenix.
04:49DRS, there is a player option involved in that two-year contract that Bradley Beal will sign in Los Angeles for not this upcoming season, of course,
04:58but for the final year of the deal in 2026-27.
05:01Chom Sharania yesterday tweeting out that player option is vital.
05:05Beal could become one of the top free agents at this time next summer.
05:10Really?
05:11At 33 years old?
05:12If he's one of the top free agents, free agency might be dead in the NBA.
05:16So what does it mean for the Clippers?
05:18More on that next.
05:19Bradley Beal is now a Los Angeles Clipper, joining Kawhi Leonard and James Harden and Avica Zubats under head coach Tyron Liu.
05:28Does it mean that the L.A. Clippers, the RS, are a true contender in the Western Conference?
05:34The win total for L.A. this year is 49 and a half.
05:38Can they go over that?
05:39Sure.
05:39They've had 50-plus wins each of the past two years.
05:43They were the five seed in the Western Conference this previous season.
05:47The four seed with home floor advantage in the opening round of the playoffs in 2023-24.
05:52But can they put a scare, a fright, into the 10-to-1 number to win the West?
05:57The 17-to-1 number to win an NBA championship?
06:00I would say no.
06:02In the five years currently under Tyron Liu, the L.A. Clippers have made the postseason four of those five years.
06:09First year, hot like a rocket.
06:12They made the Western Conference finals but still came up short of the NBA finals.
06:17The Clippers, as a franchise, the RS, have never reached the NBA championship series.
06:22The last three years in a row, a first-round exit for Kawhi, Harden, and Tyron Liu in L.A.
06:29Are they a playoff team?
06:31Yeah.
06:32Might they even see the second round?
06:34Okay.
06:35Are they going to have any time there is value on that 10-to-1 number to win the West?
06:40Right here, right now, I would say not so much.
06:43Yeah, they're all in their mid-30s, right?
06:45The primetime players that you're talking about once they sort of, like, you know, hit their birthdays, which are coming up before the season.
06:50Harden, Beal, and Leonard were talking about.
06:52So, here's what we say.
06:53If you're a veteran-laden team, the goal is not actually the regular season, Ben.
06:57It's getting your veteran-laden team healthy and still being energized by the time you get to the playoffs.
07:02So, I see that 49-and-a-half, my first inclination, is to bet the under.
07:06Because I don't think that shows a successful season if they got 54 wins.
07:09A successful season to me is they're in the playoffs, and you still have Harden, Beal, and Leonard that are not under duress of playing 79 games apiece here and are out of gas and or injured at the end of the season.
07:21So, if they want to make a run at the conference championship, at the NBA championship here, I think it's in their best interest to actually go under the 49-and-a-half, which means you gave ample rest to Harden, Beal, and Leonard in hopes that they're healthy by the time you get to the playoffs.
07:35Because typically, we talk about the Clippers making a playoff run without their superstars.
07:40That's a tough Western conference to begin with, and you don't win a championship in the regular season.
07:45You don't win a championship because you fought for the three seed and wound up maybe with the six seed here because you overplayed your players.
07:52Just get to the playoffs and get healthy.
07:53So, for me, I look at the 49-and-a-half and say, I want the Clippers to be below that because that means we rested our starters accordingly, hoping that they would be healthy for that run in the playoffs.
08:03Right. Is home court advantage in the opening round worth something?
08:08Sure, might it be the deciding factor for L.A. when health is going to be the number one prerogative and priority for this veteran-laden backcourt of Kawhi Leonard, James Harden?
08:18Well, Kawhi is kind of like a small forward. He can play wherever.
08:20Kawhi Leonard, James Harden, and Bradley Beal? A very different story.
08:24Our guy, Big Will, Norm Powell, no longer there with the L.A. Clippers.
08:28You know who has had the best win shares, basically war, wins above replacement, most valuable player for an NBA team two of the last four years?
08:36It's the center, Avica Zubac, who has done a great job kind of as that burgeoning young talent, not so young anymore in the frontcourt for the Clippers.
08:45Again, did Bradley Beal really move the needle?
08:48Well, 11-1 for L.A. to win the Western Conference before the Beal acquisition, take a dollar off, 10-1, tied for the fifth best price alongside the Minnesota Timberwolves.
