This poor soul, man. He just can’t catch a break it seems like. In the prime of his life, at 27 years old, after putting up 30 points per game last season, Bradley Beal finds himself in another seemingly lost season with the Washington Wizards. At the moment the Wizards are 2-6, 13th in the East, and their losses have been pretty awful losing to the Bulls and the Magic twice each. I knew that with the loss of John Wall, and with the acquisition of Russell Westbrook, it would be a difficult learning curve for Beal, but I was kind of wrong? I guess?
Beal himself is having a great season. Averaging 34 points, 5 assists, and 5 rebounds per game, while shooting 49% from the floor, and 38% from deep, Beal is having an even better season than he did last year, while having an even MORE ball dominant point guard than he did all of last year. Not to mention that Russell Westbrook is playing out of his mind. Russell is averaging a triple-double again with 20/10/11, and had triple-doubles in his first four games with the Wizards. If I were to tell you just those two things, you’d think that the Wizards are at the top of the East and are probably undefeated, instead of at the bottom of the East standings.
It gets even worse for Beal, unfortunately. Just the other night, Beal dropped a career high 60 points against the 76ers. I say unfortunately, because Joel Embiid and the 76ers were able to win that game. On the face of it, that doesn’t seem awful. I mean, Devin Booker dropped 70 and lost a few years ago, so nothing major, right? Well. No. This has become a habit in Beal’s career so far, it seems. His six highest scoring outbursts of his career are as follows: 60, 55, 53 ,47, 46, 46. The results of those games? L’s. Every single one of them. When Beal plays out of his mind, his team does not come to his aid. In the game against the 76ers, Beal had 60, Westbrook chipped in 20, and the rest of the starters combined only dropped 20. Not to mention that this team is atrocious on defense. I’m convinced that the Clay County Middle School JV team could have scored on the Wizards in this game, and every game so far.
Is there anything that can happen for Beal? Technically, a team could trade for him, but who? Brooklyn doesn’t seem to be in the market anymore, even though I think they should keep their options open. Maybe Toronto flips Pascal Siakam? Or maybe Orlando gives up Aaron Gordon? I’m not sure. What I do know is that the Wizards should be thankful for what Beal has done for the team since he was drafted in 2012, and work with him to get him to a team that can showcase his talent and win games. I’ve paid attention to Beal and his game more and more due to the friendship that he and Jayson Tatum have, and Beal is a fun player to watch. He’s smooth, he gets to his spots, and when he’s on fire, there is not one person on the planet that can stop him.
We’re passed the age where a player spends his entire career with the team that drafted him. Steph Curry may be the last one we ever see, and the Wizards have already made it clear that they don’t intend to do that after trading John Wall this offseason. So I think it would be beneficial for both parties to move on. The Wizards should retire Beal’s and Wall’s numbers one day, and they should work with Beal to get him to a place where he can be happy to play. You can only go so long with losing before it starts to get to you personally. I think Bradley Beal is a winner. It’s time to show that on a different team.
Round The Game 
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