As crazy as it may sound, the Golden State Warriors trading for 2x All-Star guard Bradley Beal, coming off his best statistical season in the NBA, would not only negatively affect their title chances this season but for future seasons as well.
From the time the NBA Bubble started back in July, all the way to the present day in the offseason, Bradley Beal has been a hot name in trade scenarios. After failing to make the playoffs for two consecutive seasons and Beal basically being “alone” on the Washington Wizards, there have been speculations about his potential departure from Washington to join a title contender who is willing to give up a lot in return for the high-scoring guard, the Golden State Warriors being one of these teams.
A backcourt of Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Bradley Beal would, without a doubt, be the most deadly shooting backcourt in NBA history as all three guards have shot 38% or better from three-point range in their careers and have scored at a rate of 19.5 PPG or better over the span of their careers.
Skip Bayless and Shannon Sharpe discussed the possibility of the Warriors adding Beal on their show ‘Skip and Shannon: Undisputed’ on FoxSports and Sirius XM Radio. During their argument, Bayless stated:
"“If they successfully add Beal, I think the question would be: How much of a threat would the Lakers be to Golden State? Because the Warriors would be the top dog. This would be the greatest outside shooting team you have ever seen.”"
See the full discussion below:
.@RealSkipBayless on Golden State possibly trading for Bradley Beal:
— UNDISPUTED (@undisputed) October 21, 2020
"If they successfully add Beal, I think the question would be: How much of a threat would the Lakers be to GS? Because the Warriors would be the top dog. This would be the greatest outside shooting team." pic.twitter.com/MLTGLFe4Hh
While adding Beal would give the Warriors an insane amount of talent offensively, the Warriors would be stuck on the defensive side of the ball, as teams would have no problem scoring inside and playing “bully-ball” against this small Warriors lineup. Since the Warriors do not have a true center and they like to play versatile big men at the 5-position, adding Bradley Beal would turn the Warriors into the Houston Rockets 2.0, causing them to have to rely heavily on the three-pointer.
Not to mention, the trade package the Warriors would have to send to the Washington Wizards would be detrimental to the future of the Golden State franchise. Brian Windhorst of ESPN talked about trade packages for Bradley Beal this offseason on his podcast, “Brian Windhorst & The Hoop Collective” and mentioned what the Warriors would have to give up to acquire Beal.
"“The trade there is pretty simple… Andrew Wiggins is involved from a salary standpoint and then it would be the No. 2 pick in this year’s draft, the Timberwolves pick next year, and then I also included Minnesota’s second-round pick next year, which I anticipate to be a very good selection.”"
Not only would the Warriors have to give up two first-round picks (The No. 2 pick in the 2020 NBA Draft and MIN 2021 First-Round pick) and an early second-round pick (MIN 2021 Second-Round pick), but Andrew Wiggins as well, who was just acquired to fill the void the Warriors have on the wing since Andre Iguodala is no longer with the organization. Wiggins, along with these three draft picks are the future of the Warriors and the next generation of talent that is set to take over when Curry, Thompson and Green enter the back-half of their careers.
Losing this youthful group of high-level talent would force the Warriors to go all-in these next two seasons, pay more than they would want in luxury taxes and cause the Warriors to change their organization’s philosophy they have had for years about “building the team through the draft,” since they would be giving up a lot of draft assets.
The Golden State Warriors are in a position to not only contend for championships now, but to continue building high-level talent through the draft and acquire assets to make them championship contenders for the next decade, so why would they throw away their future?
Would the Warriors be the greatest outside shooting team in NBA history with Bradley Beal?
Yes.
But the lingering effect for years to come would change the entire dynamic and culture of this organization to the point that they would take themselves out of title contention and have to rebuild at some point within the next decade, instead of remaining title contenders.
Bradley Beal to the Golden State Warriors would be a great trade for someone playing MyLeague on 2K21, shooting threes at will against the CPU, but in real-life, this trade will ultimately hurt the Warriors down the road. The best thing ‘Dub Nation’ can hope for at this point is for the Warriors to either keep the No. 2 pick in the 2020 NBA Draft and continue to build for the future, or leverage their draft assets and Andrew Wiggins to acquire Giannis Antetokounmpo either now or in the future. Bradley Beal is not the piece to the puzzle the Warriors should be looking for at this point in time.