Report: Lakers have ‘confirmed interest’ in Bradley Beal if he is bought out

Phoenix Suns star guard Bradley Beal may just be on his way out of Phoenix very soon. After all, recent rumors suggest that the Suns could very well buy out Beal’s bloated contract this offseason.

Beal might be on one of the worst contracts in the league in terms of the amount of money he’s making relative to his impact on the floor.

However, Beal would be an unrestricted free agent and off that contract if the Suns bought him out, and according to NBA insiders Marc Stein and Jake Fischer, there would not be a shortage of teams interested in signing Beal on the open market.

The Los Angeles Lakers were one of five teams mentioned as having a “confirmed interest” in Beal should he be bought out.

“The [Los Angeles] Clippers, Lakers, [Golden State] Warriors, [Minnesota] Timberwolves and, yes, Giannis [Antetokounmpo]’s [Milwaukee] Bucks are teams with a confirmed interest in signing Beal once he reaches the open market … with the Clippers widely regarded as a particularly strong contender to land the 33-year-old former All-Star,” Stein and Fischer wrote.

The Lakers can only offer Beal $5.1 million in starting salary, and it would be more than worth that amount to take a flier on Beal, even with the guard depth that the Lakers already have.

Los Angeles has a strong starting backcourt in place with Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves, and they both were premier offensive players for the storied franchise a season ago. Both players averaged 20-plus points and five-plus assists per game in the 2024-25 campaign.

Perhaps in an ideal world, Beal would be willing to come off the bench if signed by the Lakers, as he did that for the Suns at times last season. Beal came off the pine in 15 of the 53 games he played in with the Suns and averaged 16.8 points per game as a reserve.

For as much of a down year as Beal just had for a Suns team that massively underperformed, he could potentially get back to his effective self in a better situation.

If nothing else, in a scenario where Beal could potentially be coming off the bench in Los Angeles, fans of the team wouldn’t need to worry about bench scoring or lack thereof, as he’s one of the more gifted scorers in the NBA today and has been for some time.