Beal is an all-star caliber player, but he’s not an elite franchise level player. There’s a huge difference.
Beal is a essentially modern day version of Peja Stojakovic or Mitch Richmond. A player that is a great scorer, but doesn’t move the needle by himself. As evidenced by the Wiz 7-17 record this season and the past few seasons with John Wall being limited or out.
WAS isn’t a contender with him on their team now and hasn’t been in a few years. In the weaker East no less.
Even when Wall was healthy they were a 45 win level team and a 1st or 2nd round exit. Again, in the East. They weren’t a true contender and were maxed out. They needed a player better than Wall or Beal to raise them up.
So, again, you’ve got Beal confused with a different level of player.
Steph as a top 5 player is hanging around .500 with his supporting cast so teams succes doesnt directly correlate to players ability. Thats why Beal isnt a top 5 player, but a great player still and its very difficult to get players of his caliber. There are a lot more examples on how a player alone cant do much but in a good team he could raise the floor from 8th seed contention to a good playoff team.
But when it comes to this trade dont get me wrong my first option would be the same as it was before the season started: a quick rebuild and building the team around Fox and Haliburton while getting a high draft pick. But if the rebuild is off the table and the object is to chase the 8th seed, then I would be willing to swap Haliburton and the 10th pick for Beal. I dont consider Bagley as much of an asset and Hield <-> Bertans swap doesnt move the needle much. So basically I value Beal more than Haliburton and the expected outcome of the 10th pick.
Sure, he’d be a great player to have alongside 2 or 3 others like him, but he’s nowhere worth that trade package.
Not only is that the truth, the KINGS would be almost in the same exact same position WAS is in now except in the West and minus draft capital to improve.
Yes a good point, Beal, Fox, Barnes, Holmes, Bertans would be over .500 team depending on Fox's developement and rest of the team. The trade would raise the floor at least, ceiling is hard to say as it depends on multiple variables. Thats not a move I would be passionately chasing but if it were offered with promises of extension I'd take it. The difference of opinions probably come from valuation of Bagley and Beal and I'm totally fine if someone values them differently.
But this discussion is getting further away from Haliburton so its probably best continued somewhere else.