What could the Indiana Pacers offer for Bradley Beal?
By Rhett Bauer
What might the Wizards want, and what can the Pacers offer?
The Wizards are in an interesting spot as far as team building goes. They have veterans like 32-year-old Russell Westbrook and 28-year-old Dāvis Bertāns under contract for three and five more years respectively. Other than those two and Beal, Washington has five players 23 or younger as the only players under contract after this season. They have the bones of a rebuilding team, and trading away their superstar would likely lean them more heavily into that to the tune of young players with upside and a plethora of draft picks.
On the Pacers side of things, a trade for another starting level perimeter player in Beal would almost certainly mean the breakup of the front court duo of Domantas Sabonis and Myles Turner. Malcolm Brogdon, Caris LeVert, and T.J. Warren are all pieces that either don’t make sense for the Wizards or that the Pacers likely wouldn’t move. There are still some questions about the potential ceiling of the Turbonis pairing, even with new coach Nate Bjorkgren at the helm, and this could be an opportunity to use one of the two bigs as a trade piece and boost their potential ceiling.
We can use previous superstar trades as an outline for what Washington might demand: young player with All-Star upside, and every pick a team can offer. Players like Ben Simmons from Philadelphia or Michael Porter from Denver, or a package around Golden State’s James Wiseman and 2021 Minnesota first round pick are the type of deals thrown around for someone like Beal.
The Pacers are not a team that would send their entire future regardless of the player, especially when getting Beal doesn’t guarantee a championship level team. But what if the Pacers were willing to offer a young player who is already an All-Star?