The Suns are eliminated from the NBA playoffs and the Bradley Beal trade didn't work out

Six months later, the Minnesota Timberwolves swept the Suns out of the first round of the playoffs on Sunday with a 122-116 victory in Game 4 at the Footprint Center. Not only did Phoenix fall short of the championship and fall behind last season, it was also booed by its home crowd during a loss in Game 3 and became the first team to be eliminated from the postseason. To make matters worse, Beal had promised that the Suns would win Game 4 – “I've never been swept in my life, so I'll be damned if that happens,” he said – only to fail horribly in the finale play . If that was the closing argument, the Suns' trade for Beal was undoubtedly a mistake.

“When it comes to the roster, everyone talks about the firepower, but when you look around the league, it comes down to the details,” Booker said. “You can’t just go out there and think you’re going to attract talent.”

The 30-year-old Beal looked nothing like the three-time All-Star who averaged more than 30 points per game twice during his 11-year tenure with the Wizards. An injury-plagued season in which he missed 29 games came to a terrible end: With Phoenix's season on the line, Beal scored just nine points on 4-for-13 shooting, committed six turnovers, was fouled after 31 minutes and was lit by Anthony Edwards, who led the Timberwolves with 40 points.

That certainly wasn't what Ishbia, a mortgage company executive who bought the Suns in December 2022, had in mind when he rejigged his roster to sign Beal and part ways with Chris Paul, four future first-rounders. picks and six second-round picks in the deal with the Wizards.

“Every time you get into foul trouble, it messes up the whole rhythm of the game,” Suns coach Frank Vogel said. “[Beal] was out there competing and playing super hard. He missed some looks that he normally does. We're asking him to guard Anthony Edwards and play point guard against full-court pressure, which we haven't done a good enough job of mitigating for him. It's up to me and our staff to just make sure we can handle their pressure better. [The Timberwolves’] The pressure bothered us throughout the series and probably took its toll on Brad.”

Of course, Beal's inconsistent season and nightmarish Game 4 are just part of Phoenix's predicament. Beal was the sixth-highest paid player in the NBA this season and is due $161 million over the next three years with full guarantees. To make room for his salary alongside the maximum contracts for Durant and Booker, the Suns parted ways with Paul, their longtime starting point guard, and dealt Deandre Ayton, their starting center, to the Portland Trail Blazers for Jusuf Nurkic, a lesser replacement. Phoenix was also forced to sacrifice depth and fill its bench with minimum salary contracts.

The move of the summer left the Suns no room for error: Beal had to be great or the whole house would fall.

The whole house collapsed. Phoenix never replaced Paul and shot themselves in the foot with crippling turnovers all season long. Nurkic was a less effective defender than Ayton, and the Suns couldn't hold down the middle or rebound against the struggling Timberwolves. The revolving door of role players surrounding the “Big Three” were consistently overwhelmed and outmatched. Consider: Booker (49 points) and Durant (33 points) combined for 82 points on 38 shots in Game 4 – an impressive performance – yet the Suns couldn't keep up with a Timberwolves offense that ranked 17th in the regular season ranked in offensive efficiency.

“It’s disappointing,” Vogel said. “There is no other way to put it. There is no worse professional feeling in the world than being defeated in the playoffs. I've never been a part of it. I’m feeling pretty low at the moment.”

Vogel, facing rumors that his job was in jeopardy, opted for a small-ball lineup Sunday in hopes of neutralizing Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert. Beal's awkward fit as a makeshift point guard, coupled with his poor outside shooting and foul trouble prevented Phoenix from generating any real flow. Instead, the Suns thrived on Durant and Booker hitting hard shots and parading to the free throw line while the Timberwolves waited for a late-game comeback.

In the chaotic final, Edwards scored 16 of his 40 points in the final period to give Minnesota its first playoff series win since 2004. Meanwhile, Timberwolves coach Chris Finch had to be helped off the field after suffering a serious knee injury in a collision Guard Mike Conley, who was fouled by Booker near the sideline.

As the evening began, Vogel said he hoped his team would protect the ball, make more threes and rebound more effectively. Afterward, Booker lamented Phoenix's difficulty maintaining spacing on the court and competing on the glass, while Durant pointed to sloppy execution, an inconsistent rhythm on offense and a lack of continuity compared to the NBA's top competitors. In one way or another, all of these ongoing problems resulted from the Beal transfer and the roster compromises that came with it.

The Suns don't have easy pivots. Vogel insisted on Sunday that he had “the full support of Mat Ishbia” despite the Phoenix owner firing former coach Monty Williams shortly after last year's playoff exit. Beal has a massive contract that few, if any, teams would accept, and he has a no-trade clause that further limits his value. Durant, 35, and Booker, 27, both suggested the Suns would bounce back with the same core.

“Communication is more important than anything, and we haven’t been good at that this year,” Booker said. “Hopefully everyone feels the same pain. It needs to be fixed. I have to get better. Kevin needs to get better. Brad needs to get better. The coach has to get better.”

To properly support Durant and Booker, Phoenix needs a distribution-oriented point guard, two big wing defenders and a few proven frontcourt players in addition to Nurkic. Good luck. The Suns cannot undo the Beal trade and cannot reasonably expect to exchange him and his contract for useful pieces in another deal.

Risky plans that are clumsily executed often lead to dead ends. No wonder Durant, who hasn't reached the conference finals since leaving the Golden State Warriors in free agency in 2019, declined to provide details about what went wrong for the Suns.

“Whenever I offer context, it’s viewed as an apology,” he said. “So I’ll just be better next year. … I don't want to be up here making excuses for what happened. We will look into this and find a solution together with the family.”