It's official: Bradley Beal won't join the Boston Celtics this season. Well, not yet, at least. Despite his well-documented status as Jayson Tatum's best friend in the NBA, the Celtics passed on the chance to bring him in.
There were rumors linking Beal to Boston, but if we're being 100% accurate, it sounded like the interest was more on his side than it was on the Celtics'. But instead, he's returning to the Los Angeles Clippers.
Free agent Bradley Beal has agreed to a two-year, $13.2 million deal to return to the Los Angeles Clippers, with a player option in the second season, Mark Bartelstein of @PrioritySports tells ESPN. pic.twitter.com/RzLqjDv5hy
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) August 13, 2026
But why not? Besides his familiarity, Beal could have been an interesting buy-low candidate in Boston, despite his injury-plagued season in LA. But Boston passed, and why? Because they truly believe in the depth they have now.
That's not only because they signed Mike Conley Jr., but because Beal may have gotten in the way of the development of their young players who bring some of the same qualities he would, like Baylor Scheierman and Ron Harper Jr.
Scheierman and Harper proved both how good and how useful they can be as guards for Boston, which they will likely depend on even more this coming season following the Jaylen Brown trade and Paul George likely to be rested.
When something promising is showing itself, it's best to see it through. The Celtics learned this the hard way when they tried to re-incorporate Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward after Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown powered them to Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals.
There was no guarantee Beal would have worked in Boston
If, say, Boston brought in the former All-Star, they would have made a gamble on Beal after he showed disappointingly little before his season with the Clippers was cut short. He not only didn't play in many games, but his numbers went way down the drain, which would have created quite a bit of skepticism.
In all fairness, that may have been a bad set of circumstances, and it's possible Beal is still a better player than all of them, but that wasn't a guarantee. It's not like Conley is the player he once was. Far from it, even, but it's clear Boston believes he was the better bet than Beal. Especially since he signed for a much lower price.
The Celtics have clearly put an emphasis on fit over talent this summer, so there's no telling if Beal would have fit Mazzulla Ball even if a better season from him were in the works. They not only have guys who fit, but guys whose best basketball might be ahead of them.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it, and because Beal may have gotten in the way, the Celtics avoided such a consequence.
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