Washington Wizards Mailbag Monday: Could the Wizards Trade Bradley Beal For DeMarcus Cousins?

Washington Wizards Mailbag Monday: March 21, 2016

It’s Monday and the Washington Wizards are coming off one of their most successful weeks of the season.

The Wizards have won four games in a row and they’re right back in the playoff hunt. John Wall has been putting up monstrous numbers and Markieff Morris has gotten super comfortable in the starting lineup. For the first time in what feels like forever, the Wizards are actually kind-of playing some defense too.

For the Wizards to climb the standings, they will need to continue beating the teams they should beat on paper.

They have the Atlanta Hawks coming up twice followed by the Minnesota Timberwolves and Los Angeles Lakers. Theoretically, the Wizards could be above .500 by the end of this week.

Let’s hope they continue rolling.

As always, though, we’ll start the week off by answering some of your questions.

Thanks for participating. If you want to be featured in next week’s edition, feel free to give us a shout: @WizofAwes.

In case you missed it, the Sacramento Kings reportedly might consider trading DeMarcus Cousins this summer. Don’t get too excited, though. As much as I would like to see Boogie out of that dreadful NBA cesspool, his name has been in the rumor mill ever since he stepped foot inside of it.

The Kings should trade Boogie and I would be delighted if he landed in Washington.

Is Boogie perfect? Absolutely not. He’s ill-tempered and obviously needs leadership around him. The Wizards have built a solid-enough environment in Washington to mitigate his outbursts, I think. Having John Wall – his friend and soulmate – right next to him would certainly help as well.

Boogie deserves a change of scenery, and while it would kill me to see Bradley Beal waste some of his career in Sacramento, the NBA is a business. If the deal is available, I would do it in a heartbeat.

I’m terribly afraid that Beal is going to become Eric Gordon. You can say what you want, but he’s on that path. Prior to getting hurt, Gordon was regarded as one of the top young players in the NBA. He got traded for Chris Paul, received way more money than he should have and never lived up to the hype.

So, let me answer your question. What are the chances the Wizards put together a deal around Beal and Cousins? Out of 100, there’s probably a 10 or so percent chance. I just don’t see it happening.

First of all, would Beal, Otto Porter and Marcin Gortat – for instance – be enough to get a star like Cousins? Vlade Divac and the Kings will ask for way more than they should for Cousins. Giving up a player of his caliber for fillers and a huge risk in Beal would be a very Kings move, though, so let’s hope they pull the trigger.

I mean, just imagine Boogie and Wall together in Washington. It would be spectacular. Unfortunately, the chances of it happening aren’t very high.

I actually threw that suggestion out on Saturday.

People aren’t very huge fans of Carmelo Anthony at this point in his career, but no one can deny that he’s still a top scorer and creator. A lot of folks want Anthony to be something he’s not. Is it Anthony’s fault that he was constantly regarded amongst the best in the league and ultimately overrated? It’s not.

Anthony would give Washington a huge boost. If they miss out on Kevin Durant and Al Horford in free agency, why not pick up the phone and call Phil Jackson? John Wall has never played with another All-Star before and he deserves it. The two would mesh well together, I think.

Washington would have to give up Otto Porter and a pick to even entice the Knicks.

To make it work, Washington would either have to get another team involved or match the salaries themselves, which would be tough since they would only have Wall, Gortat, Oubre and Porter under contract.

Kris Humphries is a serviceable NBA player and I wish the Washington Wizards never tried to turn him into something he wasn’t. Humphries’ game doesn’t necessarily fit into the modern NBA style, but he’s still capable of being productive. He can knock down the mid-range jump shot, he runs in transition and rebounds.

Washington wanted Humphries to become a stretch four, and while his shooting numbers weren’t terrible, my eyes bled every time Humphries slowly released a 3-point shot.

Humphries is back to doing what he originally did in Washington. He’s rebounding for the Hawks and he’s hitting shots from the perimeter. The Hawks have enough shooting and don’t need Humphries to spot-up from deep.

Next: Assessing a Positive Pixels Filled Week for the Wizards

Humphries might be a factor tonight. Revenge games are a real thing. Players typically play a lot harder against teams that traded them.