NBA Draft, trade rumors roundup: Beal talking to teams, Hornets prefer Ingram to Zion?

With less than a week to go until the NBA Draft, rumors are flying around the league — but be careful what you buy into. There is more smoke in the air than at a Cypress Hill concert.

Let’s sort out fact from fiction by rounding up rumors from around the NBA.

This report from Chris Haynes of Bleacher Report/TNT is both true and obvious. Beal is the only player in the NBA with a no-trade clause, he has to sign off on any potential trade, so of course he and his agent will want to talk to said teams.

 The Miami Heat remain the clear frontrunner — Beal has expressed interest in joining the Heat in the past, and the Heat are star-hunting to try and get more firepower next to Jimmy Butler. It’s also relatively easy to construct a trade between the teams that sends a pick or two (depending on protections) plus Tyler Herro, Duncan Robinson, and maybe one more minimum contract to the nation’s capital.

The Kings have been reported as interested (Charania plus Sam Amick of The Athletic), but it’s difficult to construct a trade that gets Washington the retooling pieces they would want (this assumes Beal wants to go there, which reportedly he is open to). The Milwaukee Bucks have been mentioned, but that also is highly unlikely and would have to involve Khris Middleton opting into his $40.4 million for this season and working out an extend-and-trade… and why would the Bucks do that. Beal is not better than Middleton now, certainly not as a two-way player.

There seems some logic on paper to the 76ers having an interest in Beal if James Harden goes to Houston, but that is not the case according to a couple of reports. The 76ers are not in the mix. Which is why everything comes back around to Miami.

Take this one with a huge grain of