If Washington Wizards guard Bradley Beal gets a max contract this summer, former NBA player Tracy McGrady is going to come out of retirement.
“If he’s a max player, I’m coming back,” McGrady said on ESPN’s The Jump, tongue in cheek.
Tracy McGrady just now on ESPN’s The Jump, asked about Bradley Beal: “If he’s a max player, I’m coming back.”
— Abe Schwadron (@abe_squad) May 24, 2016
Beal said yesterday that he will seek a max contract this summer. “I want to be valued the right way,” the 22-year-old restricted free agent told the Washington Post. “I feel like I’m a max player and that’s what I’m looking for. If Washington can’t meet that requirement then I may be thinking elsewhere.”
But Beal hasn’t played a full season since he came to the NBA as a first-round draft pick in 2012. In fact, he’s coming off a season in which he played the fewest games of his career due to injuries.
Beal has talent, no doubt. He’s also a pretty good shooter from 3-point range (39.7 percent for his career). But his durability might keep him from becoming a max player.
McGrady isn’t the only one that doesn’t see it with Beal. There are plenty of doubters out there that wouldn’t sign an injury-prone player to a max contract.
We’ll see during the summer if the Wizards value Beal as a max player, or if another team tries to lure him away with an offer Washington isn’t willing to match.