The rumors have been flying for years about St. Louis buddies Jayson Tatum and Bradley Beal joining forces on the same NBA team. Even dating back to when Beal was an All-Star in Washington, there was speculation about the Celtics trading to bring him to Boston, but things never came to fruition.
This summer, with Beal having fallen out of favor in the NBA and lingering in free agency into August, those rumors picked up again. After Jaylen Brown was traded and the Celtics very clearly became Tatum’s team, there was some thought that the front office may want to appease the franchise superstar, and what better way to do that than by bringing in his hometown pal.
But alas, it’s not meant to be, and perhaps it never was. On Thursday night, Beal agreed to return to the Clippers on a two-year, $13.2 million deal with the second year being a player option. LA has had a tumultuous offseason and is clearly headed for a rebuild, while the veteran Beal, who has fallen off and battled injury, clearly doesn’t have much of a market.
It made sense for both sides to reunite. Beal gets paid more than the minimum and should have a good opportunity to play and possibly revive his value. The Clippers get a known veteran commodity in Beal who can possibly put fans in the seats and has a well-known high ceiling. If he plays well, they could have a solid trade asset on their hands.
The Roster & Salary Cap Nightmare Boston Avoided
And at the end of the day, this is a good thing for everyone, including Tatum and the Celtics. His fit in Boston frankly never made any sense. Beal has looked washed up for years, and giving him minutes over any of the team’s young guards and wings would have been malpractice. If not for the St. Louis connection with Tatum, this never would have even been a rumor.
The Celtics love two-way guys who play team basketball and shoot threes and create turnovers. That’s not Beal. Nor has it really ever been. At this point in his career, he’s a massive liability on defense and isn’t bringing nearly enough on the offensive end to be considered a reliable contributor to a contending team.
And that’s before we even get into the availability and contract. Even signing Beal to a veteran minimum contract would’ve pushed the Celtics over the luxury tax line, and for a player who would’ve struggled to crack the rotation, that would have made no sense at all. The team already brought in a veteran leader guard in Mike Conley this offseason, and although Mike is more of a point guard, there’s just way too much overlap.
Maybe if Tatum had gone to the front office and aggressively advocated for this move, the team would’ve done it just to make their franchise player happy. But luckily, that’s not who Tatum is, and that’s not how the team operates. And thank goodness for that. Bringing Beal to Boston may have been fun in the moment, but in the long run it likely would have been closer to a disaster.
Add us as a preferred source on Google