Bradley Beal, after rough return to Phoenix, says Suns role made him ‘somebody else’ – The Athletic
PHOENIX — On a night that started with boos in lineup introductions and boos every time he touched the ball, there were cheers on Bradley Beal’s final shot attempt in his return to Phoenix. Unfortunately for Beal, he plays for the LA Clippers now, and his final shot Thursday was heavily contested by Grayson Allen out of a timeout.
As Beal fell to the floor looking for an official out of bewilderment, his teammate John Collins lost control of the rebound after Suns star guard Devin Booker stripped the ball from him. Four seconds later, Booker found Royce O’Neale for a 3-pointer that was part of a decisive 12-0 third-quarter run that ensured that the home team would lead the rest of the game by double digits.
Beal was traded to Phoenix as part of a 2023 draft-day deal that cost the Suns Chris Paul, four first-round pick swaps and six second-round picks. After two seasons on a no-trade clause that resulted in zero playoff wins and the firing of head coaches Frank Vogel and Mike Budenholzer, Beal gave back $13.9 million as part of a buyout with two years and $110 million left on his contract so that he could sign a two-year, $11 million deal with the Clippers that has a 2026 player option.
Under Vogel and Budenholzer, Beal did not feel like he was used optimally, and the relationship he had with those coaches was not strong enough to work through those differences.
“When you allow me to be that guy, I’ll be that,” Beal told The Athletic. “But when you have two coaches that want you to set screens and play in the dunker, you’re not Brad Beal. You’re somebody else.”
Now Phoenix has a new coach in Jordan Ott, and his Suns spoiled Beal’s return to Phoenix in a 115-102 victory Thursday. Beal’s night was over with 6:02 left in the third quarter, and it was a game he’d surely like to burn the tape on, as he scored a season-low five points on 2-of-14 shooting from the field to go with only one rebound, one assist and no steals, blocks or free-throw attempts.
But Beal insisted that Thursday night was just another night of basketball. The revenge-game angle wasn’t something Beal was taking the bait on in Week 1, when the Clippers beat the Suns 129 to 102, as Beal would only say: “Good dub.” Now in a loss, Beal was similarly unmoved.
“To me, it wasn’t about get back,” Beal told The Athletic about his return to Phoenix. “We whooped y’all a couple weeks ago. So it wasn’t like, you know, I don’t think it’s about that. For me, it was — no disrespect to Phoenix — but it was more meaningful for me to go back to D.C. and play, after being there for 11 years and that’s my franchise, you know? I feel like I was more geeked about that than coming back here. There’s no disrespect … but they have their way how they feel.”
Beal has played in 586 regular-season games in which he has attempted at least 14 field goals. He has only had three of those 586 games result in a worse percentage than he converted in his return to Phoenix, per Stathead. But Beal was happy to even get 14 shots to work with Thursday night.
“When’s the last time I shot 14 shots for the Suns?” Beal asked The Athletic.
The minute restriction Beal has been on due to a right knee scope has kept him from reaching 22 minutes in any of his five games this season, but Thursday night seemed like rock bottom, as he only played a season-low 19:39 while the Clippers were outscored by a season-worst 23 points in Beal’s minutes. All of this came on a night the Clippers were missing point guard James Harden due to personal leave and forward Kawhi Leonard due to a sprained right ankle.
The result of Thursday night’s game saw a Clippers team that blew out the Suns in their home opener trail by as many as 25 points despite a 51-48 halftime lead. With the two teams meeting again Saturday at Intuit Dome, the team that moved on from Beal has now left the Clippers at the bottom of the Pacific Division with a 3-5 record. And while LA’s new shooting guard was struggling through his minute restriction, Phoenix’s new shooting guard was debuting and thriving despite his. Jalen Green, acquired from the Houston Rockets as part of the seven-team trade that sent Kevin Durant to Texas, had a game-high 29 points in only 22:59.
That means that Green has already matched the number of times Beal scored at least 29 points in a game all of last season. The only time Beal had at least 29 points in a game last season was in a 127-109 Suns blowout loss at Toronto, where Beal scored 30 points on 12-of-15 shooting while playing with both Durant and Booker. That was one of 25 games last season (out of 53) in which Beal attempted at least 14 shots.
Bradley Beal had a difficult night in his return to Phoenix. (Mark J. Rebilas / Imagn Images)
There was a time when Beal averaged 30 points per game. In 2020-21, Beal made the last of his three All-Star selections and his only All-NBA selection (third team) while averaging 31.3 points per game. It was Beal’s second straight season dropping 30 per game, as he averaged 30.5 points per game in 2019-20. Clippers teammates still discuss those seasons Beal had and speak of him as if he is still capable of that kind of scoring.
“Very dynamic, almost led the league in scoring one year, three-level scorer,” Leonard said of Beal last week after a horrific loss in Golden State that saw the Clippers fail to break 80 points while Beal sat out due to back soreness. “That says it all there.”
“That’s one thing I will say is, everybody’s on my ass like, ‘Go, keep shooting, go, go, go,’” Beal said after Thursday’s game. “‘Just go be you, be you. Be you.’ So, that’s always encouraging. And that’s something I take to heart. And I’m happy to hear that.”
Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue, a Missouri native like Beal, expressed great enthusiasm when Beal agreed to come to LA. Lue said in a July press release that, “You can put him in so many different spots and he’ll find ways to score: out of pick-and-roll, coming off screens, catch-and-shoot. He can create his own or he can play off the ball. He’s a great cutter. He’s also a great playmaker who is going to make everybody else better.”
But Beal had an uneven preseason. He was the last of the Clippers to participate in a preseason game after the Clippers brought him along slowly following the knee procedure that both Lue and Beal made sure to note Thursday that Beal needed as a result of playing through injury in Phoenix. Beal isn’t cleared to play in back-to-backs yet. And the minute restriction has kept Beal from playing in fourth quarters at all. Simply put, Lue can’t rely on Beal just yet to be the player he wants him to be.
“Physically, he definitely can do it,” Lue said before Beal’s 2-of-14 shooting performance. “Just the minutes he’s going to be playing, I don’t think he can really go out and score 35, 40. But the most important thing, he’s feeling better. He’s slowly working towards where he’s trying to get to. And then tonight is just one of those days, like I said, just adding: stacking games, stacking days. And this would be another one he’s trying to stack.”
Asked Ivica Zubac about Bradley Beal’s tough night in Phoenix
Zubac didn’t agree about Beal not getting himself going. Felt that Beal got good looks that simply didn’t fall. Zu expressed that Beal is still trying to find his rhythm through the injury management situation pic.twitter.com/qvHGEp5EVZ
— Law Murray ⛲️ (@LawMurrayTheNU) November 7, 2025
While Beal needs time and is trying to be patient, it’s clear that the Clippers are falling behind. And it’s clear that they haven’t replaced what they lost in Norman Powell, the shooting guard who stepped up to fill the perimeter scoring void when Paul George left the Clippers in 2024 free agency before being traded in July to the Miami Heat in a three-team deal that brought Collins to LA from the Utah Jazz.
Beal was thought of as a ballhandling and playmaking upgrade on Powell, while having the reputation as a consummate scorer and shooter who could be pushed to be as good a rebounder and defender. When Powell and the Heat visited the Clippers Monday night, Beal matched season-bests with 12 points and two assists. But Beal had three turnovers and missed his two free throw attempts, while Powell came back from a groin injury to score 21 points in a 120-119 Heat win.
While Powell is averaging 23.2 points and 5.2 rebounds in five games with the Heat this season, Beal has a total of 37 points and five rebounds in five games (101 minutes) with the Clippers to begin this season, with a 7:8 assist-turnover ratio. LA brought Beal and Paul in for better shot creation options, but LA is last in turnover percentage this season after being 23rd last season.
The fans in Phoenix were happy to see Beal struggle. But Beal says there’s no hard feelings (“People are gonna boo. It’s part of the game. It’s part of being a fan,” Beal said afterward), something he demonstrated by signing autographs before the game while embracing former teammates after the game. All Beal can do for now is what Lue says: Keep progressing toward being the player the Clippers need. And Beal seems to understand that ahead of a third meeting with the Suns at home on Saturday.
“That’s basketball — we wouldn’t be pros if we couldn’t be mentally tough enough to move on to the next game or be mentally tough to move on to the next play,” Beal said. “It happens, man. It’s going to be games dudes might not make a shot. Might not get a rebound. But how you bounce back and how you respond to that is a testament to your character, who you are as a player. So, see you Saturday.”
