I’m sure you’re sick of hearing about Bradley Beal in relation to the Phoenix Suns but the unfortunate news is your basketball team did not give you a choice the next few years when they executed the waive-and-stretch last summer.
This offseason is Year 2 out of the five that Phoenix will have $19.4 million of his dead money on the books. It automatically turns the yearly transactional period into an obstacle course, requiring agility to avoid either the aprons or the tax entirely.
For reference on how difficult this is, the tax line is projected to be around $201 million next season. If the Suns pick up Jamaree Bouyea’s team option, they have around $162 million in salaries on the books. Add on the dead cap from Nassir Little (yep, that $3.1 million has five years left still) and E.J. Liddell (last year of his $706,898, though!) and now we’re up to $166 million.
Slap on the Beal money and now we are suddenly just $16 million shy of the tax instead of a healthy $39 million.
For a front office that emphasized player retention at the end of the season, it’s much more challenging now, even before getting to a needed roster makeover. That makeover will not be made complete without sizable moves this summer, but the Beal jam forces money to factor into every decision even more than before.
To state it simply without wrangling you into a spreadsheet breakdown, Phoenix will be a tax-paying team next year if it brings back its key three free agents: Collin Gillespie, Jordan Goodwin and Mark Williams.
Gillespie will earn at least eight figures, while a cheaper deal for Goodwin around half that or a little more still wouldn’t offer much relief. Williams is the big one we will get to here in a minute.
Here’s the thing: The Suns probably don’t want to pay the tax next year, because that was assuredly part of the plan when originally dumping Beal as a positive to the risky maneuver.
By executing the waive-and-stretch, the Suns did some other slight cap gymnastics to duck just under the tax for last season’s books. While some of the messaging behind releasing Beal was the freedom it created away from the shackles of the first and second aprons, Phoenix over a year’s time has hardly used any of the now-unlocked roster maneuverability tools at its disposal. As it was said at the time, this was always about the money.
The 2025-26 season was the Suns’ first not operating as a tax team in four years, meaning it had previously paid the tax three straight seasons. That effort was not only to save $176 million on the tax bill, but to prevent inflated numbers like that in the future.
Phoenix would have qualified as a “tax repeater” if it kept Beal, which is a designation franchises earn when it spends three seasons out of a four-year period in the tax. A repeater has its tax penalties further intensified.
If you’re following along with me, that means, yes, the Suns would still be a repeater this upcoming season if they return to the tax. But far more importantly, if they remain out of it for one more season, that resets their “three-in-four” counter. In other words, Phoenix could spend two straight seasons in the tax following the 2026-27 campaign and not face the repeater penalties if it stays out of the tax this upcoming season. That’s quite helpful.
All of this mumbo jumbo was the core motivation behind the Beal departure.
Now, the Suns aren’t dummies.
They presumably made that decision knowing that the cap sheet for 2026-27 would be pretty clean. A second straight year under the tax seemed like a formality. What they did not anticipate, however, was two guys on the bottom-third of the roster going from minimum signings to healthy earners. I’d go as far as guessing that if Phoenix knew the upcoming improvements and raises were coming for Gillespie and Goodwin, they wouldn’t have traded for Williams in the first place.
But they did.
All of this bounces back to Williams, a restricted free agent. When it comes to prioritizing the cap sheet, undeniably, the best outcome is to sign-and-trade him. If Gillespie signs a deal that puts his 2026-27 salary somewhere in the range of $10-12 million per year, that already compromises the tax line with the return of Goodwin, assuming he gets north of $5 million per year too.
Even if Williams is retained on the qualifying offer of $9.6 million, the value trade-off is not there. Phoenix would be going into the tax for a center whose impact was debatably equal to backup Oso Ighodaro’s, and there’s a strong case Ighodaro’s was better.
Williams contributes to that with severe injury risk, all while the No. 10 overall pick from last year’s draft, Khaman Maluach, is waiting in the wings for what almost certainly has to be some type of cemented role for next season.
You can apply that logic to the idea of signing Williams on a long-term contract as well.
The sign-and-trade is the only way to trade Williams now. Williams cannot be traded this summer if he takes the qualifying offer or is re-signed to a new deal. In that event, it would have to wait till the middle of the season. Tax payments aren’t made official until the end of the year, so Phoenix could just wait to trade Williams then, but the flaw with that plan is taking a gamble on Williams not getting hurt to remain tradeable.
The issue in foreseeing a sign-and-trade is the low odds that anyone will give Williams an offer sheet in the first place.
Since 2019 across the last seven offseasons, there have been a total of five offer sheets agreed upon with restricted free agents. Five. In seven years.
No one really messes with restricted free agents these days. Perhaps that changes this year with fellow centers Jalen Duren and Walker Kessler on the market, a pair that will certainly have its numbers of suitors. And perhaps aggressive teams that strike out on either of those guys would go for the next-best option in Williams.
If that’s the case, the Suns could broker a sign-and-trade from there. The return in these trades is often insignificant, and that’s the point where you talk about a different type of value trade-off with Phoenix giving up two late first-round picks for Williams and getting little to nothing in return beyond his play last season. But, uh, that ship has sailed.
Phoenix could just choose not to tender him the qualifying offer and let him become an unrestricted free agent, too. There is an argument for doing that.
If the Suns still want Williams retained, then the only situation Phoenix stays out of the tax is if Gillespie signs elsewhere and/or the Suns find a home for another sizable salary already on the books.
They will certainly explore trade possibilities for Grayson Allen and Royce O’Neale. The cushiest fit is a team that can acquire one of them in exchange for a draft pick and little to no salary. That’s a tough ask with Allen since he’s at $18.1 million next year as opposed to O’Neale’s $10.9 million.
Both players have an extra year left on their deals after that. Maybe there’s a trade involving Allen or Jalen Green (two years, $72 million) where Phoenix takes back a player earning substantially less.
All of this might lead to the Suns saying “screw this” and spending through the tax to keep everyone around. There is no downside to being a below-the-apron taxpayer beyond just having to spend more money.
But the first apron and its well-known roster movement restrictions do linger. There are less than $10 million dollars between the tax line ($201 million) and becoming a first-apron team ($209 million). It’s a little over $20 million from the tax to the dreaded second apron ($222 million).
We’ve seen that handcuff the Suns before and now it’s a different type of barrier to be mindful of.
Which direction Ishbia, general manager Brian Gregory and crew decide to go will dictate how their offseason goes. Ishbia has said in the past that if Phoenix is going to be a tax-paying team, it will not do so by just some slim margin.
If the Suns are going to pay those penalties, they are going to spend, an ability not many organizations have. At the same time, Phoenix was barely under the tax last season, which showcased a different type of ability to navigate this tight of a window.
They’ll use one of those abilities this summer.
Hence then, the article about will suns complete hard work of their bradley beal dump this summer was published today ( ) and is available on Arizona sports ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Will Suns complete hard work of their Bradley Beal dump this summer? )
Also on site :