The Phoenix Suns and the Washington Wizards are finalizing a trade that will send Bradley Beal to the Suns in exchange for Chris Paul, Landry Shamet, at least four second-round picks and multiple pick swaps to the Wizards, according to ESPN and The Athletic.

"This was an extremely complicated process with so many different hurdles to get through, and (Wizards owner) Ted Leonsis and (Wizards president) Michael Winger were unbelievable partners in making this happen," Beal's agent, Mark Bartelstein of Priority Sports, told ESPN. "From the day that Ted drafted Brad, he has been by our side along with (former general managers) Ernie Grunfeld and Tommy Sheppard. They've always had Brad's back in every way, and now we have experienced the exact same thing with Ted and Michael Winger. We are extremely grateful."

Beal, a three-time NBA All-Star guard, has been in poor form in the past two seasons, during which he only made 90 appearances, averaging 23.2 points, six assists and 1.6 triples at 33.3 percent. However, he grew to become one of the league's top scorers, getting 31.3 points per game and losing in a very close race with Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors over the scoring leader in the 2020-21 campaign.

With the arrival of Beal, the Suns have formed a new "Big Three" of him, Devin Booker and Kevin Durant, each of whom is capable of averaging 30+ points per game. Moreover, all three shoot to kill in the middle range, making them even more unstoppable in the playoffs when shooting 3-pointers and charging the rim become much more difficult.

Of course, Beal comes along with four years left on his contract, which is set to pay him over $207 million and includes veto power over any potential deal. The Suns, with no more than eight players at the moment on their roster for the 2023-24 season, will have a team payroll of over $170 million. Their luxury tax figure could be terrifying after they sign more players to fill all the vacancies.

Furthermore, despite the sharp firepower Booker, Durant and Beal can provide in combination, the last team that wanted to dominate the NBA with pure individual attacks, namely the Brooklyn Nets with Durant, Kyrie Irving and James Harden, turned out to be an epic failure. Booker and Durant experienced the same thing with the Suns last season when they were knocked out by the Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference semifinals.

As for defense, the Suns seemed to have given up on that front when they traded everything for Durant in the middle of the 2022-23 season. Neither Paul nor Shamet is a dependable defender, but Beal is nothing but worse than either of them on this end of the game.

However, even though the Suns have to swallow a high cost and a lot of risks to land Beal, it still doesn't justify the Wizards' decision to let their best player in the past four seasons go for such a cheap price. No matter how many second-rounders they get, they are worth less than two first-round picks, and it's not difficult at all for the Wizards to find a team willing to trade multiple first-rounders for Beal, the third-most valuable player on the trade market this summer.

There is the possibility that the Wizards are preparing to begin a complete rebuild. The team has been in an awkward situation for years. They were never competitive enough to threaten anyone in the Eastern Conference, nor tanked enough to get quality draft picks. In fact, the team has been making poor choices when drafting rookies. The five-year, $251 million extension they signed with Beal in July 2022 basically killed any last drop of hope they still had for the future.

That's why trading Beal in such an economical deal could be a sign of the Wizards' determination to start over completely. Both Kristaps Porzingis and Kyle Kuzma, two of their best players on the roster, only have one year left on their current contracts if they exercise the player option. Paul and Shamet may even not end up signing with the team because the Wizards are still looking for a third party to send Paul to a contender and complete the trade. Even if both stay with the Wizards, Paul has only $15.8 million guaranteed of his $30.8 million salary for the 2023-24 season and nothing guaranteed for the 2024-25 campaign. Shamet has nothing guaranteed for the next two seasons.

Sending Beal away will cause some pain for the Wizards in the short term, but at least they won't have to look at three $50+ million contracts on their roster, like what the Suns will experience from the 2024-25 season.