Why the Washington Wizards might do this deal
Finally, your prayers have been answered. After being one of the first NBA teams to sign a player to the super-max contract, they’re left looking at a player who’s injured and obviously can’t be on the court for them, yearly salaries that increase by eight percent each year, and an all-star who didn’t ask to be in this scenario.
Sure, Bradley Beal signed on for four more years in Washington but times were different then, and Wall was one of the best point guards in the league, and Marcin Gortat could free you up anytime you wanted with one of his devastating screens.
Every team has a reset button located in a glass box. Unfortunately, the one in Washington has Beal’s name stamped all over it. They have a tough choice ahead but one that should be relatively easy given the circumstances. They could hold onto everything they have, and as things get better, they live happily ever after.
They could try their best to keep it all together banking on Wall to return to action with no more setbacks. They could also tread water and then watch Beal request a trade, having that leak (because you know it will) and watch his stock plummet into depths unknown.
Or they could avoid all that by breaking that glass box, attaching Wall to Beal in a trade and start over, but this time having learned from their mistake.
Not only are they getting rid of both of those large contracts, but they’re also getting further salary cap relief due to the unique circumstances of J.R. Smith’s contract. Only $3.8 million of his $15 million salary is guaranteed and they have negotiated with him recently to push the date back to July 15th with the option to push it back again to August 1st, so they clearly intended to use his contract in a trade sooner rather than later.
Goran Dragic’s contract will come off their books at the end of the season, or they could trade him to another team at the deadline. I’m sure whatever team trades for him would like to know if he intended to re-sign with them, but that’s none of the Heat’s concern. All the Wizards want to do is get something back in return for him. Maybe a couple picks if he wants to go elsewhere, take a run at him in free agency with their new plan laid out, or just get further cap relief when the season ends.
James Johnson is a good defender who never backs down from a challenge. He had a down year this past season as he came back from sports hernia surgery. I expect him to come back 100 percent this upcoming season. For the Wizards it’s worth a chance.
If it doesn’t pan out, his contract is cheap enough where you can couple it with Dragic or others to land some assets or keep him. It’ll be nice to have a cagey veteran in the locker room since his contract goes through the end of 2021 season.
Duncan Robinson has been proving himself even more in the Las Vegas Summer League this year, but with Miami keeping Herro and Adebayo in this scenario, he’s the one who has to go. He is a nice-sized forward with some handle and a sweet stroke on a very cheap minimum contract that you could pair up with any young team’s timeline and let him continue to grow.
They’ll also receive Miami’s unprotected 2020 first round pick since They were able to get their 2021 pick back from the Thunder in this deal.
With Ian Mahinmi’s $15.4 million finally coming off the cap sheet next summer they’ll be ready to make moves. But will they do it right?