In the first round of this year's playoffs, when Beal delivered an explosive performance of 4 of 13 (1 of 5 three-pointers), 9 points, 1 rebound, 2 assists, 6 turnovers and 6 fouls in the battle of life and death, my mind was full of Zhang Jiahui's line: "You picked it, idol".
Of course, there is no direct evidence that Beal was brought in by Durant, but Durant himself said, "I gave advice when Beal was traded, and it felt cool to be a part of it." Durant, who thought the deal was "cool" half a year ago, doesn't know how it feels now.
Before the start of the playoffs in April, Beal said he wanted to handle the team's offense and win the championship. After a 3-0 win in the first round, Beal's confidence has not faded, and he said he will never let the sweep happen.
This is the first time Beal has been swept in his career, of course, he has been in the more harmonious environment of the East, this is the first time Beal has felt the playoff atmosphere of the Wild West, and then handed over a performance of 16.5 points, 4.5 assists and 3.3 turnovers in four games.
Of course, the pot where the sun was swept away, Bill could only carry part of it, and he didn't have the ability to carry all the pot. It's just that in the battle of life and death, when Booker scored 49 points, Durant scored 33 points, and Beal not only didn't score double-doubles, but also made consecutive mistakes in the final minute of the final quarter, you can easily blame the Suns' failure throughout the season on this deal before the season began.
The Suns sent Paul + Shamet + 6 second-round picks + 4 first-round picks to swap rights from the Wizards for Beal + Timber. To be honest, the outside world did not rate the deal low at the time, and at that time, Beal was still an average scorer of 23+ per game, and had just shot the highest season of his career.
Beal certainly doesn't look fit for the sun at this stage, but Paul is certainly the one who has to go, but the guy he got is the wrong one. The Suns' new owner made a big move, eliminating everyone on the team except Booker. He thought that stacking up enough scorers would be all right, and he was eventually taught a lesson in reality.
In fact, no matter what the era, blindly piling up the so-called giants will not end well. The Big Three who have achieved success, without exception, have a strict role allocation, and the stars sacrifice the ball to do a good job in their respective positions, and the team's lineup must be reasonable.
Even the Nets Big Three, which later failed, had a master controller like Harden, and if it weren't for Irving's problems and injuries, the Nets' ceiling would be immeasurable. In recent years, the examples of league giants have been a bit miserable, with the Lakers and the Suns Beals, both of whom were teammates with the Wizards.
When Beal first went to the Suns, many people thought that the combination of these three people was deformed, not to mention where the defense was, the salaries of these people were too high, basically locking the space for the Suns to strengthen in the future, and they could only sign a base salary.
Being swept this year may not be the worst-case scenario, with Beal's salary for the next three years being $50 million, $54 million, and $57 million, respectively. And Beal still has the veto power that comes with the deal in the contract, which means that as long as Beal doesn't want to go, even if it's rotten, it has to rot on the Suns' account.
In the offseason, the Suns are in a situation where they have more than enough power but not enough power, and in the context of the high salaries of the Big Three, the Suns can only use the base salary to dig for treasure everywhere. For example, a veteran with a base salary of 2.8 million a year signed Monte Morris. Signed Plumlee for 3.3 million a year. He also signed a one-year contract with Bol Bol and Damian Lee.
Renewing Royce O'Neal's contract for 4 years and 44 million is something that must be done, otherwise if Royce leaves in vain, the Suns will lose more and there will be no room to reinforce.
And the operation of renewing Okogie's contract for 16 million in 2 years is incomprehensible. Okogie is a base-salary player in the eyes of many people, and now the Suns keep him for 8 million a year, adding another fire to the team's salary.
In addition to the salary of 8 million, the sun also has to pay 33 million luxury tax for this. The Suns also became the first team to expect to spend more than $400 million next season, including $223 million in wages and $198 million in luxury taxes, totaling about $421 million! The first in history, surpassing the former warriors.
Cosmic Yong's once-high luxury tax was paying off the debts of a former dynasty, while Sun was simply paying for the mistakes of management. It seems that the Suns spent 421 million, but are there any substantial reinforcements to the team's lineup? No.
The effect of replacing Vogel with Budenholzer is two things, these two coaches are championship coaches in the 20s, but the role of the coach in the Suns team should also be limited.
The Suns, who were full of confidence last season, ended up not even winning a game in the playoffs. Next season, with more than $400 million in spending, if the Suns don't produce any more results, the combination of these three will come to an end.