Miami Heat: Bradley Beal not signing extension with Wizards (yet)

As of Friday, Bradley Beal was eligible to sign a $111 million extension with the Washington Wizards. So far, he hasn’t, and the Miami Heat are watching.

The Miami Heat have been keeping an eye on Bradley Beal‘s contract extension with the Washington Wizards. As of Friday, Beal is eligible to sign an extension worth $111 million over three years, but per David Aldridge of The Athletic, he has not yet signed and may not sign it at all.

According to Aldridge:

While the extension doesn’t keep him from getting back on the free agent market again in his prime as he is currently 26 years old, there isn’t really a good reason to sign this deal from Bradley Beal’s perspective.

It would lock him in at a rate below what he will be able to seek on the open market when he would have become a free agent in two years, and it would prevent him from being able to seek a super-max contract with the Wizards if he makes one of the three All-NBA teams in the next two seasons.

The Miami Heat are interested because if Beal was to sign it, that would indicate a commitment between himself and the Wizards, and it would likely signify the death of any trade possibility to acquire his services. If he doesn’t (which he probably won’t and clearly shouldn’t), the door is open because the Wizards won’t want to risk losing him for nothing and beginning an arduous rebuild process with an empty war chest.

In what has been the Summer of Pat Riley thus far, as much for moves he’s made as moves he has wisely sidestepped, the opportunity to swing one more blockbuster does remain open thus far, and for as long as Bradley Beal leaves that extension offer unsigned, that potential will remain tantalizingly available.