The “Big Three” of the Suns has been a failure from the start (a surprise to no one with a brain). They just don’t fit together. Instead of trading Durant, who has a very positive plus-minus in all lineup combinations, we should trade Beal, who has negative plus-minuses in all lineup combinations. There’s just one minor problem…

I scoured all the teams for trades where Beal could start (which would surely be one of Beal’s requirements), and I could find nothing where the Suns wouldn’t have to give up an unreasonable number of assets, much less Beal waiving his no-trade clause to allow it. There isn’t even enough bad money out there to make a trade work. The best I could find is Jarami Grant, who at season’s end will have three years with $90M remaining, which is in the ballpark of a fair exchange (with Suns draft assets), but even if Portland would agree to it (highly unlikely) there is no way Beal would waive his no-trade clause to go to non-contender Portland without even a viable chance to start over Sharpe. I also looked at trades to the Pelicans, Jazz, Magic, Pistons, and others, and I couldn’t find a trade that was reasonable from the other teams’ or Beal’s perspectives.

The only answer is to waive and stretch Beal. The numbers represented here aren’t quite right as the cap will go up and Beal’s contract would be just the remaining two years ($110M) over five years, which would mean a cap hit of $22M for the next five years. Still, this would get the Suns out of the second apron, freeing up their 2032 first round pick and lifting the restrictions of the second apron. And with the anticipated 10% cap increases every year, by the final year the cap hit would be only 13% of the total cap, not insignificant but definitely manageable.

Of course, this scenario is unlikely because it would take Mat Ishbia, Bartlestein, and James Jones admitting the complete failure of the Beal move, but the plus-minus and eye test makes this the only viable path forward. A fan can dream…