Bradley Beal reminds Suns why they bought him out

After the Phoenix Suns gave him $96M to go away, Bradley Beal had a chance to show his old team what it was missing Thursday night. Unfortunately for the Los Angeles Clippers, Beal did most of the missing.

Beal shot 2-for-14 and scored five points as the Suns beat the Clippers, 115-102. The former Suns guard spent two disappointing seasons in Phoenix after coming over from the Washington Wizards, then signed with the Clippers after the Suns bought out the last two years of his contract.

Bradley Beal started to decline when he reached Phoenix

In Beal's last season with the Wizards, he averaged 23.2 points. In his first season with the Suns, Beal was down to 18.2 points. Paired with Devin Booker and Kevin Durant, who both like to have the ball in their hands on offense, Beal started to disappear on offense.

He also began driving to the hoop far less. Whether it was his fit in Phoenix or an effect of Beal's many injuries, he went from driving to the hoop 15.9 times per game in his last Wizards season to 12 drives per game in 2023-24 and 9.8 drives last season. Beal was creating fewer shots for himself, and not creating shots for others either, as his assists dropped from 5.4 APG to 5.0 to 3.7.

That's not useless. Beal shot over 40% on corner threes in both Suns seasons, which is valuable, but those represented an increasingly large portion of his shot diet. It's a bad sign when your $50M shooting guard is standing in the corner on offense.

Bradley Beal was overpaid — and might still be

Teams were very interested in Beal after his buyout, and he chose to sign with the Clippers on a two-year, $11M deal with a player option for 2026-27. So far, Beal has played five games and averaged 7.4 points, 1.4 assists and one rebound. He's on a minutes restriction, but those are poor numbers even for 20 minutes per game.

Suns fans booed Beal during the game, and he seemed to want to prove them wrong. He attempted 14 shots in his 20 minutes of play and finished with as many made baskets as turnovers: two. He scored six points against Suns in their first meeting this season, but took only four shots in front of the friendlier crowd.

Adding Beal is one reason the Clippers are allowing 16 three-pointers per game, worst in the NBA, and three more than last season's average. The Suns sank 19 on Thursday night, the fifth time in eight games the Clippers have given up 17 or more, with Beal part of a team-wide failure to guard the arc.

The Clippers didn't have Kawhi Leonard or James Harden on Thursday, which is exactly the kind of game they need Beal for. He didn't deliver. Beal isn't much of a defensive player, especially at age 32, so when he's not scoring, he's a real negative.

Beal was clearly overpaid with the Suns, but he might be overpaid with the Clippers, too. He's still dealing with injuries, so we may not be seeing the best version of Beal yet. What we are seeing is a disaster so far.