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The Suns got a star. The Wizards got cap space. But another team may win the Bradley Beal trade.
Brooklyn controls Phoenix’s first-round picks for five of the next seven drafts, including this one. While adding Beal might hurt the quality of the pick Brooklyn receives in 2025, Kevin Durant turns 35 before the start of next season. Before the 2026-27 season, he’ll be 38. Devin Booker will be 30, and Beal will be 33.
Brooklyn also gets Phoenix’s first-rounder in both 2028 and 2029, when those players will be even older, and the Suns won’t have had a chance to replenish their roster through the draft. Phoenix only has first-round picks in 2024 and 2026, and are reportedly sending six second-rounders to Washington. And the new CBA puts heavy restrictions on trades and salary cap exceptions.
That means the Nets could be sitting on some very valuable draft capital, albeit a few years in the future. And it’s the opposite of the position they were in when they made their own all-in trade in 2013.
Brooklyn added Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett in exchange for three first-round picks, plus a pick swap. Those picks turned into Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, with the 2018 pick forming the foundation of their trade for Kyrie Irving. Boston made the NBA Finals in 2022 and five conference finals in seven years.
While Pierce and Garnett were both older than Garnett at the time of the deal, the trade does show the danger of trading unprotected picks well into the future. Brooklyn was still paying for their ill-advised deal five years later, and four years after Pierce left the team.
It’s may still be worth it for Phoenix to take their shot at a title. But it also could make the Durant deal especially lucrative for Brooklyn.
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