Woj: Wizards 'Nowhere Near' Bradley Beal Trade, Still Working on New Contract

ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski said Thursday the Washington Wizards are "nowhere near" trading shooting guard Bradley Beal.

"Well, Bradley Beal's got two years left on his deal, and the Wizards have not given up hope of signing him to an extension," Wojnarowski said on Woj and Lowe (at the 2:55 mark).

"They've had a three-year, $111 million or so extension on the table for him to take in any form. Does he want two years, three years? Any form he wants, it is there waiting for him, so they are nowhere near the idea of moving Bradley Beal. They want to continue to try to rebuild around him, get John Wall back healthy, but because there are no big unrestricted free agents this summer—2021, Giannis Antetokounmpo is out there, but only one team can get him—Bradley Beal, if he got on the market, would bring back an absolute ransom because if you want to improve your team in a dramatic way, he'd be the guy. But Washington's not doing that. They still want to re-sign him."

Beal's five-year, $127.2 million contract is set to expire in summer 2021.

"Honestly, you might slap me, but I haven't thought about it," Beal told NBC Sports Washington's Chris Miller on the Wizards Talk podcast. "I'm just getting better and letting my agent, [Wizards general manager] Tommy [Sheppard] and everybody else deal with it.

"I just go hoop. Every day I see somebody and they ask, 'Beal, you leaving?' and I'm like, 'I'm still living in D.C. I ain't going nowhere.'"

Sheppard told reporters Sept. 26 he hasn't heard back regarding the team's extension offer. The GM told Brad Botkin of CBS Sports he wants Beal in the nation's capital long term:

"The way that I look at this is pretty simple: If you were looking to build a team, Brad would be the type of player anyone would want to start with. You look at the character, the talent, the age, just the whole package ... Brad is without a doubt a core player in this league. Every team would love to have him, and we do. So we've never considered anything other than a situation where Brad is with us and leading us forward. We made that clear to him on the first day we could offer him an extension, and we'll continue to make that clear."

The 26-year-old Beal averaged career highs of 25.6 points, 5.5 assists and 1.5 steals per game last season.

Washington will open the 2019-20 regular season at the Dallas Mavericks on Oct. 23.