Bradley Beal’s summer is getting a rather anticlimactic outcome.
The veteran shooting guard Beal has agreed to re-sign with the LA Clippers in free agency, Shams Charania of ESPN reported on Thursday. Charania adds that Beal is getting a new two-year, $13.2 million deal with a player option in the second year.
Beal, now 33, is a three-time NBA All-Star who was once a 30-ppg scorer with the Washington Wizards. But the wheels started to fall off for Beal during a subsequent tenure with the Phoenix Suns, and it quickly got worse for Beal after he signed with the Clippers as a free agent last summer.
The former All-NBA selection Beal only managed to make six total appearances for the Clippers last year, posting just 8.2 points and 1.7 assists per game. After that point, Beal was forced to undergo season-ending surgery on a fractured left hip in early November.
Beal was expected to leave the Clippers as a free agent this offseason after initially declining his $5.6 million player option for next season. It does not appear that the Clippers will be competing next season either after trading away the likes of James Harden, Ivica Zubac, and Kawhi Leonard (still pending the outcome of a league investigation) over the last several months.
But Beal, who had previously been linked to some interesting NBA contenders, may not have generated the interest that he had been hoping for, especially coming off a major surgery. Instead, he will be settling for a slight pay bump from the $5.6 million player option that he had declined in order to rebuild his value on a low-expectations Clippers team next season.
