Bradley Beal catastrophe shows why it could be so much worse for the Jazz

It's been a rough three years for the Utah Jazz. For the first two of those three years, no one knew what direction they were taking, and even when they finally chose one, this past season was a pretty rough watch. But for everything that's been so frustrating about the Jazz for the past three seasons, they at least have upside, which definitely isn't the case with the Phoenix Suns.

The Suns made a drastic but necessary move when they waived and stretched Bradley Beal, who is expected to sign with the Los Angeles Clippers when he clears waivers.

The Suns took a big gamble when they traded for Bradley Beal, which culminated in an embarrassing playoff sweep in his first year, and then things got worse when they missed the playoffs altogether. Is that technically better than the Jazz have fared the last two years? Technically, yes, but Phoenix came well short of their title expectations.

Trading for Beal has turned into one of the biggest miscalculations in recent memory (Note that it's not Beal's fault, as his biggest sin was being a little too redundant next to Devin Booker). Now, Phoenix will pay him almost $100 million over the next several years to play against them. Props to them for confronting the problem at hand, but that is one expensive problem they will spend years paying for.

That's a rough situation to deal with, and now the Suns have plenty of questions about their future. Not only do they have to pay Beal, but they had no choice but to sell extremely low on Kevin Durant, and they don't have many assets at their disposal (more on this later).

By comparison, the Jazz don't have much going against them. There is the top-eight pick they owe Oklahoma City next year, but the moves they've made this offseason indicates they'll do what they can to keep it. Sure, they got rid of their veterans, and even have to deal with Jordan Clarkson's dead money next season, but that's to make room for exciting younger players.

It may not lead to that many wins right away, but everyone can see the vision years from now. In Phoenix's case, it's hard to see what their long-term plans will be when the dust settles. Even crazier is that this move helps the Jazz too.

The Jazz only win further from this situation

Besides the fact that the Jazz have much better upside long-term than the Suns do, the Suns waiving Beal could only make them worse. Making that even more likely is the fact that they didn't replace him with anything.

For anyone who may not remember, Utah has Phoenix's unprotected 2031 first-round pick, which got better not too long ago thanks to the Durant trade. Because Phoenix doesn't have much of a long-term direction, that pick could look sweeter and sweeter as the years go by.

It was already a big enough home run that Utah swapped quantity for quality, and since the deal has been made, Phoenix has given them every indication that Utah scored big time when they made that trade.