Washington Wizards Mailbag Monday: Potential Trades, Kris Humphries and More

We’re three weeks into the season and the Washington Wizards have already experienced a number of ups-and-downs.

The team isn’t as deep as we thought they were prior to the beginning of the season, injuries have forced Randy Wittman to alter his rotation and the defense has been abysmal.

While it’s still too early to judge the team, we have a pretty good idea of what the Washington Wizards are trying to do. This year’s Wizards club looks entirely different from last season’s, even though the roster makeup is essentially the same.

It’s Monday, though, so it’s the start of what will probably be another wacky week of Wizards basketball.

For today’s Mailbag Monday, I took questions from Twitter and Reddit.

I’m sorry to offend the Bullets Forever crew, but I do not like pineapple on pizza nor do I understand why people enjoy fruits on such things.

I mean, just Google “pineapple pizza” and hit images. It doesn’t even look right. It looks out of place — like something that doesn’t belong on a pizza.

Kris Humphries isn’t the best three point shooter in the league, but he is in my heart.

Humphries is 12th in three point percentage, knocking down over 46 percent of his attempts. That’s…fantastic. I’ll throw this out there, even though it’s meaningless without context: Humphries is shooting better from deep than Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant and J.J. Redick.

I still don’t know how comfortable he is with his new role, but he’s become more accustomed to it. It’ll be interesting to see if he can continue hitting threes at such a high rate.

Rasual Butler was the league’s best three point shooter nearly until All-Star break, then it was all downhill from there. I wouldn’t expect a drastic drop-off for Humphries, but hitting nearly 50 percent of three point shots isn’t sustainable.

Martell Webster‘s situation with the Washington Wizards has become weird, and it’s been that way for the past few years. I interviewed Martell before the season began and it was clear that he worked hard to prepare for this season. He lost a bunch of weight and changed the way he worked out so he could remain healthy. Unfortunately, he had an issue with his hip flair up. He could miss the entire season if he opts for surgery.

And that’s where things have gotten slightly weird.

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Webster won’t play for the Wizards anytime soon.

He wears what are essentially goggles in practice that help him stabilize the way he runs, which could help him play through the pain.

But that’s not ideal.

You don’t want to put a player, who clearly isn’t 100 percent, out there against others who are.

Surgery seems like an inevitability for Webster, but his contract for this season is fully guaranteed, meaning he will get north of $5 million regardless of how many games he misses. Next season, though, is only partially guaranteed.

He’d have to play over 70 games, I believe, to have his contract fully guaranteed for next year. I’m not psychic, but I’m certain Webster won’t play the amount of games necessary to make his contract fully guaranteed.

So, with all that said, it wouldn’t make sense to buy his contract out this season just to sign another free agent. That situation might happen next season, though. His contract will be partially guaranteed and the buyout would be a lot less. Webster hasn’t played in basically two seasons, so that option will be on the table for Ernie Grunfeld and Co.

Right now, Webster is a member of the team and I don’t anticipate that changing unless a trade takes place.

If you were to make one in season trade for the Wizards, who would you target? – via You_coward

Ryan Anderson.

The New Orleans Pelicans aren’t mathematically out of the NBA Playoff race, but it’ll be an up-hill battle from now on. The Pelicans are the worst team in the Western Conference right now, sporting just one win and 9 losses.

Anderson is going to become an unrestricted free agent next summer, so teams are going to call the Pelicans wondering if he’s available. He’s been a part of their rotation and he’s one of their best players, but there’s a solid chance that he’ll leave New Orleans in the off-season. Anderson is going to be a top-target for many teams, especially those that miss out on their key players.

Washington could offer something, like, a protected pick and a veteran.

Anderson is the prototypical stretch four. He’s averaging nearly 16 points and over 7 rebounds per game. He’s also hitting over 35 percent of his threes and I’d expect that number to increase if he played next to John Wall and Bradley Beal.

A lineup of Wall, Beal, Otto Porter, Ryan Anderson and Marcin Gortat would yield some serious offensive production.

Next: Assessing Another Wacky Week of Wizards Basketball

As always, if you’d like to be featured in next week’s edition of Mailbag Monday, feel free to hit us up @WizofAwes. Thanks for reading. I genuinely hope everyone has a wonderful Monday and a wonderful week.