Los Angeles Clippers guard Bradley Beal will have season ending surgery on his hip to repair a fracture, ending his year after just 6 games played.
The 32 year old, who is in his first season with LA, averaged 8.2 pts/0.5 stl/1.7 ast/0.8 reb per game, in just over 20 minutes a night with his new team. His previous team, the Phoenix Suns, used the waive-and-stretch provision to shed his salary last year, paving the way for him to sign a 2 year, $11M contract with Los Angeles this past July.
“We met with numerous doctors and specialists around the country in collaboration with the entire Clippers medical staff over the last few days, and came to the decision unanimously that the surgery will allow Brad to have a full and complete recovery,” Beal’s agent Mark Bartelstein told members of the press.
The injury continues the pattern of a sharp decline in on court productivity, as well as availability for the 14 year veteran over the last several seasons. Beal hasn’t appeared in more than 60 games since the 2018-19 NBA campaign, and has seen his scoring, and assist totals drop in each of the last 5 seasons.
Originally drafted 3rd overall by Washington back in 2012, the St. Louis native enjoyed several highly productive campaigns with the Wizards, including 3x All-Star selections, and back to back 30+ ppg campaigns between 2017-2019. However, since leaving DC, he’s struggled to find his footing both on and off the court.
The Clippers have scuffled to a 3-7 start to the year, and will now be missing a key piece of their rotation for the remainder of the season. Making matters worse, the Oklahoma City Thunder effectively own LA’s first round draft pick in 2026, meaning that the team won’t be getting any reinforcements via the draft lottery if they aren’t able to turn things around.
Up next for LA is a Wednesday night clash with the Denver Nuggets at 10:30pm ET.
Photo: Keith Allison. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.