Bradley Beal signing could be another shady Clippers move

The Los Angeles Clippers let 24-year-old Bennedict Mathurin walk in free agency, A big reason why is the inexplicable contract they gave to 33-year-old Bradley Beal, which smacks of an illegal agreement.

Despite Beal coming back from a broken hip, the Clippers signed him to a two-year deal for $13.2M. That looks excessive, unless the Clippers are making up for the money Beal gave up to join them.

Bradley Beal sacrificed around $14M to sign with Clippers

Last summer, Beal accepted a buyout on the two years and $110.8M remaining on his contract with the Phoenix Suns. He gave back roughly $14M to allow the Suns to open up cap space by stretching his salary over five years. Beal had to take less because the Suns could only have 15 percent of the salary cap devoted to stretched money.

He's getting that money back. Beal signed a two-year deal for $11M last year, then opted out of the second year for another, larger two-year deal with a player option. That second deal is suspiciously close to the money Beal gave up to join the Clippers last year, suggesting the deal was agreed upon in advance. Which would be illegal.

It's hard to justify why the Clippers would choose the injury-prone Beal, who looked terrible and averaged 8.2 points last season, over the younger Mathurin, who costs only slightly more for 2026-27. Unless it's a reward for choosing the Clippers over other suitors last summer and sacrificing millions to do so.

Bradley Beal doesn't make sense on Clippers

Last season, when the Clippers had a team full of veteran stars, Beal was an understandable signing. He was joining James Harden, Chris Paul and Kawhi Leonard on a team that had serious playoff ambitions. This season, all three of those veterans are gone, replaced by 26-year-old Darius Garland and 19-year-old Keaton Wagler, the No. 5 pick in this summer's draft.

Beal doesn't fit the team's timeline, nor do the Clippers really need a limited veteran guard, after trading Leonard for Brandon Ingram and Gradey Dick. Besides, other veterans like DeMar DeRozan have had to settle for veteran's minimum contracts, despite DeRozan playing 71 more games and averaging more than twice as many points as Beal in 2025-26.

Ultimately, this possible salary-cap malfeasance pales in comparison to the allegations about Leonard and his sponsorship deals. However. like Leonard's "no-show" agreement with former team sponsor Aspiration, there may not be a paper trail of the Clippers breaking the rules, but there's also no good explanation for the deal.