With Beal, the Suns would negotiate a buyout for most of the money still owed on his contract. As Rankin says, that could be $90 million stretched out over five years.Beal would have to give back ...

The Suns should do whatever it takes to move on from Bradley Beal, which in this case means they need to buy him out of his contract. It’s not an easy decision, but one that needs to be made.

Even worse was that Sheppard included a no-trade clause into the contract, adding Beal to an even more exclusive club of players to ever earn that much leverage within their organization.