The Los Angeles Clippers re-signed Bradley Beal to a two-year, $13.2 million deal with a player option for 2027-28 on Thursday night, according to multiple reports, as the former All-Star guard opted to remain in Los Angeles rather than take a minimum deal to join a contender.
Beal appeared in just six games for the Clippers last season due to a hip injury, and it was a surprise when he declined his $5.6 million player option. Few anticipated there being more money out there for him given his recent injury history — Beal has not played in more than 53 games in a season in the last five years. But the assumption was he might take a pay cut to finally join the Miami Heat, who have had reported interest in Beal for the better part of a decade, or another contender.
Instead, Beal managed to increase his 2026-27 salary to more than $6 million and get another one-plus-one deal from the Clippers. Los Angeles is banking on Beal returning to at least the form he showed in Phoenix, where, in spite of underwhelming team results, Beal averaged 17.6 points, 4.3 assists and 3.6 rebounds per game on 50.5/40.7/80.8 shooting splits over two years.
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Re-signing Beal at this point is interesting for two main reasons. One is the simple fact that the Kawhi Leonard trade with the Toronto Raptors remains on hold as the NBA’s investigation into alleged salary cap circumvention involving Leonard and the Clippers has expanded and stretched nearly a full calendar year. Both teams have been stuck in a holding pattern for more than a month, but re-signing Beal signals that Los Angeles is at least done waiting for a resolution on Leonard before trying to solidify the rest of its roster. The other is what it could mean for one of the top restricted free agents still on the market, Bennedict Mathurin, who is watching backcourt spots fill up on the Clippers roster.
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The assumption is that the Leonard trade ultimately gets done, with Leonard’s camp signaling its confidence that he will be in a Raptors uniform by the time training camp begins. However, with how many twists and turns this saga has taken, nothing can be considered a guarantee, and if camp arrives and a deal isn’t finalized, things can get awkward for both sides.
On the Clippers side of things, they seem ready to move forward with finalizing their roster no matter the outcome of the Leonard investigation and whether it scuttles the trade with Toronto. That’s made easier by the fact that they are trading Leonard for a package headlined by another wing in Brandon Ingram, with Gradey Dick as the only other player coming in.
Dick’s arrival won’t change the calculus much on the Clippers backcourt rotation, aside from giving them some more depth and shooting, and while Ingram isn’t Leonard, the fact that he plays the same position makes it a bit easier for the Clippers to plan ahead for an immediate future with either player on the roster.
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In either case, they would want more shooting and another creator in the backcourt alongside Darius Garland, which Beal provides when healthy. With a Beal deal done, the Clippers roster is mostly set.
Their big signing this summer was bringing Rui Hachimura across town to plug a hole at power forward, and now it’s largely a waiting game to see what happens with the Leonard investigation and what kind of punishment awaits.
Clippers fill up their backcourt rotation without Mathurin
Re-signing Beal will also have ripple effects for the Clippers’ top restricted free agent. Mathurin is a bit of a throwback — a high-volume, low-efficiency scoring guard — that is not exactly the most coveted archetype in the modern game.
As such, he was always going to have a tough time finding a strong deal on the restricted free agent market — a system that, at this point, is completely broken — but it’s now unclear if there’s even going to be a spot for Mathurin on the roster. The Clippers roster is already extremely imbalanced between the backcourt and frontcourt, with a glut of guards and wings and very few bigs.
If the Leonard trade goes through, they’d have Garland, Beal, Dick, Keaton Wagler (the No. 5 overall pick), Kris Dunn, Kobe Sanders and Cam Christie in the backcourt with Ingram, Derrick Jones Jr. and Jordan Miller at the small forward spot. That doesn’t leave a lot of room for Mathurin. And with Sanders breaking out last year and Christie still just 21 years old, the Clippers won’t have much interest in getting rid of their younger, cheaper guards with upside to clear room for Mathurin.
Mathurin will have a hard time producing any real leverage in negotiations as camp nears because the Clippers certainly don’t need another scoring guard, and he may have to hope to find a small offer sheet or a sign-and-trade elsewhere.
