Washington Wizards NBA Trade Deadline 2017: Four Potential Trade Scenarios

NBA: Denver Nuggets at Washington Wizards

Washington Wizards have struggled to stabilize their second unit this season and these four players could help before the NBA Trade Deadline.

Ahead of the February 23 NBA Trade Deadline, there’s a justifiable fear: would a change to the roster disrupt the chemistry that currently exists among the Washington Wizards?

The Wizards have a 25-10 record since December, which is the best in the Eastern Conference over that time period. Some have argued that the Wizards’ roster is clearly clicking, so it doesn’t need fixing. That would be shortsighted in the case of the Wizards.

The Washington Wizards’ play over these past 35 games, amplified by their epic regular season game versus the Cleveland Cavaliers this past week, has put the Eastern Conference on notice.

This is a team that will have to be dealt with for the rest of the regular season and in the postseason, and they have just as much claim to title of the second best team in the Eastern Conference as do the Boston Celtics or Toronto Raptors.

So why change things? The answer is simple: there’s too much emphasis and burden on the Wizards’ starters to carry the load.

Washington’s starting lineup of John Wall, Bradley Beal, Otto Porter, Markieff Morris, and Marcin Gortat play an average of 20.1 minutes per game as a group – second most in the NBA.

Each member of the starting five is playing a minimum of 32.1 minutes per game.

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Wall, coming off procedures to both knees in the offseason, is fifth in minutes.

Gortat is averaging a career high 34.7 minutes per game, which is 1.9 minutes above his previous career high in a season where he will turn 33 years old later this month.

This is not to say the Wizards’ players have been mismanaged.

Scott Brooks still has the players executing at a high level with no signs of wearing down.

The return of Ian Mahinmi should help alleviate some of the burden on the bigs, in particular Gortat.

However, that doesn’t help out in the backcourt where the starters’ minutes have been high, and the level of production coming from the bench has not been consistent enough to alleviate the burden Wall and Beal carrry.

Marcus Thornton was given the first opportunity, identified for the instant offense role, his poor play has him out of the rotation, having not played in 18 consecutive games.

Trey Burke and Tomas Satoransky are both in the rotation as of now but struggle with consistency. They’ve showed flashes, but neither has done enough to be relied upon for playoff minutes.

For the Washington Wizards to further close the gap between them and the class of the conference, and make a legitimate challenge to LeBron James’ dominance of the East, they will need some reinforcements on the bench.

I’ve identified a few for consideration.