Bradley Beal is undergoing season-ending surgery to repair a torn ligament in his left wrist, Beal’s agent, Mark Bartelstein, confirmed to ESPN. Beal has missed the past four games for Washington after attempting to take a charge against Memphis Grizzlies big man Jaren Jackson Jr. He initially stayed in the game, but has been out ever since. Now, his season, and perhaps his time in Washington, is over.
As you would expect, Beal was less than pleased that this would be the way that his season would come to an end but he knew that he would not be able to perform up to his standards if he were to try and play through the injury.
“Despite the last 10 days of getting intensive treatment and rehab on my wrist, it became clear that I would not be able to compete to my standards or to the level that our team and our fans deserve,” Beal said, via a press release. “I’m disappointed to have my season end this way, but we all agreed that this was the best decision. I look forward to coming back at 100% and continuing to lead this team as we work together to build toward the future.”
Beal can become an unrestricted free agent this offseason, and he will be eligible to sign a five-year, $241 million contract to remain with the Wizards. He has thus far refused to commit to doing so, preferring to keep his options open for a possible move. With this injury, though, a midseason trade becomes extremely unlikely. Few teams would be willing to give the Wizards fair value for Beal when he won’t play the rest of this season and can leave their team before next year. That means Beal’s options, for now, appear limited to staying in Washington or departing as a free agent.
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Washington’s season thus far has been an enormous disappointment. After starting things off with a 10-3 record, the Wizards have gone just 14-26 ever since. They are currently in 11th place in the Eastern Conference and set to return to the lottery after briefly returning to the postseason a year ago. That would make this the third year out of four for Washington in the lottery.
Beal wasn’t exactly helping matters. He was scoring just 23.2 points per game after averaging over 30 in each of the past two seasons. He finishes the season shooting a career-low 30 percent from behind the arc, and his defensive effort was minimal for most of the year. Now the Wizards will have to figure out how to prove to Beal that they are capable of putting a winner around him without actually having him on the floor for the rest of the season.
