Bradley Beal already missed two weeks with a shoulder injury the Wizards initially deemed minor.
Now, he’ll miss another two weeks for what Washington is spinning as a somewhat precautionary move.
Wizards release:
Wizards guard Bradley Beal has been diagnosed with the beginnings of a stress reaction in his lower right fibula. He will miss the next two weeks and then be re-evaluated. The injury was initially diagnosed following an MRI yesterday and confirmed today after further testing.
Beal has a history of lower-right-leg injuries, so it probably makes sense to shut him down at the first sign of trouble. Nobody wants to see this get worse.
That could become a major problem for Beal, who didn’t get a contract extension before last month’s deadline.
As long as he stays relatively healthy the rest of the season, he should still get a max contract in free agency next summer. He’ll probably get one from the Wizards after they pursue outside free agents – cough Kevin Durant cough. Because Washington has Beal’s Bird Rights and he has a relatively low cap hold, his signing could come last. And if the Wizards hesitate, plenty of teams will be flush with cap space to extend a max offer sheet.
So, Beal should get the max – as long as he stays healthy. That’s the only realistic reason I could see him falling short of max offers.
Beal can alleviate those concerns by using these two weeks to get healthy and the putting this setback behind him.
But this could be a tough stretch for Washington, which lost to the Pelicans without Beal last night. The Wizards’ schedule the next two weeks:
- Today: at Mavericks
- Monday: at Grizzles
- Wednesday: at Spurs
- Dec. 19: vs. Hornets
- Dec. 21: vs. Kings
- Dec. 23: vs. Grizzlies
That’ll be even more challenging without team’s second-leading scorer and distributor.
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