Since the 2019 NBA offseason, rumors have been continuously swirling around All-Star shooting guard Bradley Beal and his future with the Washington Wizards . No matter how many times they insist that they have no intention of trading him or of undergoing a full-scale rebuild, most people believe that Beal’s departure from Washington is inevitable.
If the Wizards change their mind and finally decide to make Beal available on the trade market this fall, several teams who are in dire need of additional star power to contend for the NBA championship next season are expected to express strong interest in adding him to their roster. One of those teams are the Denver Nuggets.
In a recent article, Andy Bailey of Bleacher Report created a list of trades to get the NBA’s top 10 stars over the top next season. For Nikola Jokic and the Nuggets, Bailey suggested that they could trade for Beal and form the “league’s most explosive offensive trios” next year. In the proposed trade scenario, the Nuggets would be sending a trade package that includes Gary Harris, Michael Porter Jr., Keita Bates-Diop, and a 2021 first-round pick to the Wizards in exchange for Beal.
Trading a young and promising talent like Porter Jr. would undeniably be a tough decision for the Nuggets; it’s the type of sacrifice that they should be willing to make if they want to have a realistic chance of dominating the Western Conference and winning the NBA championship next season. Beal would undeniably be an incredible addition to the Nuggets, giving them an All-Star shooting guard that would allow them to build their own “Big Three” in Denver.
Beal may not be on the same level as LeBron James, Kawhi Leonard, Kevin Durant, and Giannis Antetokounmpo, but he is one of the few superstars in the league who could turn the Nuggets from a mediocre team to a legitimate title contender in the Western Conference.
With the years he spent with John Wall in Washington, Beal has learned how to excel in an off-ball capacity, making him the ideal superstar teammate for ball-dominant players like Jokic and Murray.
The potential deal would make a lot of sense for the Wizards if they want to take a different route, as it would give them assets that could help them speed up the rebuilding process. Porter Jr. and Bates-Diop could join forces with Rui Hachimura, Thomas Bryant, and Isaac Bonga to form the core of the next title-contending team that the Wizards would try to build in Washington.
Harris may only be included in the deal for salary-matching purposes, but he would be a valuable trade chip for the Nuggets. By offering Harris to a title contender that needs wing depth, the Nuggets could acquire a young player or a future draft pick.