Bradley Beal Was Stunned by Suns Trade, Thought Devin Booker Would Be Sent to Wizards

Even Bradley Beal was surprised at the relatively low price the Phoenix Suns paid to acquire him from the Washington Wizards.

The three-time All-Star told Slam's Deyscha Smith his initial thought when learning of Phoenix's pursuit was that Devin Booker might be heading eastward.

"I was like, 'Why are they trading Book?'" he said. "Like there's no way that this is happening. Like, this can't be, this isn't right.

"But fast forward, he's here, I'm here and Kevin's here and DA [Deandre Ayton]'s here. It's surreal and crazy to think about how the deal even came to fruition, but it's done and I'm in an awesome situation where I can compete every single night for a chance to win."

Considering the Brooklyn Nets were unable to secure Booker in the return for Kevin Durant ahead of the 2023 NBA trade deadline, the Wizards had little chance of getting him for Beal this summer.

Beal's no-trade clause was an even bigger factor that tied Washington's hands.

If the 30-year-old guard was dead set on going to Phoenix, then the Wizards had to take whatever the Suns were willing to put on the table. For the same reason, they couldn't wait for a bidding war to emerge, either.

That's probably partially why the situation evolved so quickly.

Shams Charania and Josh Robbins of The Athletic reported on June 14 the Wizards and Beal were prepared to work toward a trade if Washington wanted to hit the reset button. By June 18, ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported the framework of a trade with the Suns was already done.

Expectations couldn't be much higher for Phoenix. While there's an acknowledgement the team is taking a risk with such a top-heavy roster—one whose key players have battled injuries in recent years—the Suns have the highest ceiling of any NBA team.

When looking to the season ahead, Beal refrained from setting any concrete benchmarks for success.

"Expect a very fun team to be playing in Arizona this year," he said to Smith. "The Phoenix Suns will be hungry. We'll be very aggressive, but it'll be a very fun style of play that every fan will love—love to tune in to watch. So, we can't wait. We're excited. We have a lot of very talented guys, so we're excited about it."