Potential Hold-Up in Suns, Bradley Beal Buyout Revealed

Reports emerged last week of Bradley Beal and the Phoenix Suns nearing a buyout, one that was thought to be completed by July 9 at the latest from local insiders.

However, that's yet to happen - and the potential reason may have just been revealed.

NBA insider Marc Stein offered the following information on his substack:

"League sources say Bradley Beal’s current contract stipulates that he is owed a 25% advance payment on his 2025-26 salary on July 15. As in this coming Tuesday. The early payment is valued at more than $13 million. While sources say that Beal will ultimately receive that amount no matter how his eventual exit from the Suns plays out, it is believed that he could elect to wait for that payment to go through before proceeding with his departure from the desert."

Beal - who was acquired via trade by Phoenix two summers ago - will be the second star to depart Phoenix this summer, following in the footsteps of Kevin Durant and his trade to the Houston Rockets.

He's due roughly $110 million over the next two seasons on his current contract, and after being benched towards the end of last season, his tenure in the desert has had an expiration date for some time.

That was expected to be soon, though fellow NBA insider Shams Charania deemed the situation "complicated":

"And the Suns, if you're going to get him to buyout, you want it to be at the number that gets you under both aprons and gives you hundreds of millions in savings in terms of the cap. You would also have access to part of the midlevel exception if you were to waive and stretch him. So a lot of dominos and a lot of business paperwork stuff that needs to take place before that," Charania told PHNX at NBA Summer League action.

You can read more about that here.