Miami Heat: Several takeaways from the Bradley Beal extension

The Miami Heat missed out on their target, again, after missing on Russell Westbrook as well. Bradley Beal signed an extension to stay with the Wiz on Thursday.

The Miami Heat had reportedly been hot on the trails of Bradley Beal for some time now. After signing Jimmy Butler this past summer, but also after missing on Russell Westbrook, the Miami Heat would turn all of their attention towards landing the versatile shooting guard for the Wizards.

Well, he didn’t let that talk go too far. On Thursday morning, reports started to fly fast that he had signed what would amount to a two-year extension with the Washington Wizards. Two huge parts of the deal that he signed effects the Miami Heat and their ability to get him.

The first thing is that he won’t be eligible to be traded until after the 2019-20 season, which means that he is off the table for the Miami Heat as of now. The second thing is that this new extension he’s signed has what the NBA refers to as a Trade Kicker. What this means is that the player’s salary will increase if he is traded to another team.

With this knowledge currently at hand, there are several things that can be taken away from this scenario. Here they are.

The first takeaway is that Bradley Beal will likely never become a member of the Miami Heat. With his current salary, it was perhaps a feasible situation, but with his salary set to rise exponentially after this season, it is probably a no go. His base salary will already be high enough, but along with the kicker number that would be instituted if traded, Riley would never go for something like that.

The second takeaway is that Bradley Beal believes in John Wall. If he didn’t believe in John Wall, then there is a high likelihood that he wouldn’t have signed this deal to remain in Washington past the allotted time on the contract he had prior to this extension.

While he and Wall are among the highest-paid duos in the league, they can also be among the most potent. That may be a reason why, but no matter why it is, Beal clearly believes in his backcourt mate.

The next takeaway here is that the NBA/China relationship fracture is real, players are forecasting with this notion in mind, and some of them may be attempting to get ahead of it by signing early. If you take away the Chinese generated NBA revenue, it will inevitably trickle down to the salary cap. Some players, such as potentially Bradley Beal here, got ahead of that by securing figures based on the lucrative numbers that the NBA is working with currently.

Another takeaway is that the Miami Heat will roll with what they have at the moment. That is perfectly fine, and to steal one of Coach Spo‘s go-to sayings, “we have enough”. I like what the Miami Heat have, without Bradley Beal, and I am eager to see what they are able to get done.

Lastly, it means that there won’t be a huge shakeup in the foreseeable future. We dove into this possibility recently when discussing the “conundrum” that would be trading for Beal.

On the one hand, you would be getting a talented and dynamic player, but on the other hand, you would potentially be losing so much. No one knows exactly what it would have taken to land Beal, but it is safe to assume that it would have taken multiple members of the core that the Miami Heat have built over the last few years, including Bam Adebayo and/or Justise Winslow.

That would have been too much to give away, even for Bradley Beal. While Beal again, is dynamic, he doesn’t account for everything you would be losing in trading away some of the other members of the core.

Frankly, this is a relief. It means that the core of the roster will remain intact and that cloud can stop looming over the team.

Now they can focus on the upcoming season and being the best version of themselves that they can possibly be. I expect big things from the Miami Heat this season, with or obviously without Bradley Beal, but these were a few takeaways from his extension.