After a poor start in the 2018-19 NBA season, the Washington Wizards are reportedly planning to make a huge roster overhaul before the February NBA trade deadline. Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN reported that the Wizards made every player on their roster, including John Wall and Bradley Beal, available in trade discussions.
With John Wall’s massive contract extension set to kick in next season, most people see Bradley Beal as the Wizards’ best trade asset. Aside from having a friendly contract, Beal is also younger and a better three-point shooter than Wall. Ken Berger of Bleacher Report recently talked with multiple league executives to get their opinion about the ongoing drama in Washington.
One rival executive believes trading Bradley Beal will challenge John Wall to start living up to his lucrative contract and lead the Wizards to title contention.
“That’s what I would do,” one of the rival executives said. “You tell Wall: ‘See, we traded the guy you don’t like. Now it’s your team.’”
Once Bradley Beal becomes officially available on the trade market, the San Antonio and the Minnesota Timberwolves are expected to express a strong interest in adding him to their team.
“Minnesota and San Antonio are two teams that one of the rival execs said would be interested in discussing a trade for Beal. For the Timberwolves, he would serve as a replacement for Jimmy Butler. For the Spurs, he would provide more scoring punch and a three-point-shooting threat—though such a move would necessitate moving DeMar DeRozan to the 3 or playing them in the backcourt together at times without a true point guard.”
Is there an answer to the chemistry issues in Washington, or are they doomed to trade Bradley Beal or John Wall?
Rival execs share how they would fix the Wizards https://t.co/O6f1soUoWS pic.twitter.com/YEmUEM5QDx
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) November 30, 2018
It’s not a surprise why the Timberwolves and the Spurs are eyeing to trade for Bradley Beal. In order to strengthen their chance of making a deep playoff run in the Western Conference, both teams obviously need more star power on their roster. The Timberwolves surprisingly performed better since trading Jimmy Butler and are currently on a four-game winning streak.
Robert Covington somewhat managed to replicate Butler’s performance on the defensive end of the floor, but the Timberwolves are missing the All-Star forward’s production on the offensive end. The potential acquisition of Bradley Beal will give the Wizards a very reliable scoring option and an efficient three-point shooter. Beal is only 25, which fits the timeline of Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins.
Meanwhile, Bradley Beal seems to be an odd fit in San Antonio since they already have DeMar DeRozan as their starting shooting guard. As Bleacher Report noted, trading for Beal will force Spurs Head Coach Gregg Popovich to move DeRozan to the wing or use a Beal-DeRozan backcourt tandem.
