Washington Wizards: 3 directions the Wizards can go from here

Direction #1: Blow It Up

It’s time. The Washington Wizards must trade Bradley Beal.

Unfortunately, going in this direction means that both the John Wall era and the Bradley Beal era will end on fairly low notes. However, if the Wizards want to salvage their future, they need to make the most of the assets they have now. Mainly Bradley Beal. His value is INCREDIBLY high. He’s the NBA’s leading scorer (34.5 ppg). He’s under contract for at least 1.5 seasons, with a player option for 2022-23. Plus, he’s a consummate professional. Any and every team should be in line for Beal if he’s available.

Before the season started, the Wizards were firm on one thing. Bradley Beal was not for sale. But it’s time for the Wizards to sell, sell, sell.

We’ve seen the types of hauls that teams have gotten for Paul George, Anthony Davis, Jrue Holiday, and most recently, James Harden. The Wizards can and should get a deal in that stratosphere. If they sell Beal, they should settle for no less than a budding star (Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Michael Porter Jr., Tyler Herro) and multiple picks.

Once Beal is gone, there’s one more player on the roster the Wizards must move to enter full rebuild mode: The Latvian Laser. Davis Bertans is great, and re-signing him this offseason was a win for the Wizards. But if they ship out Beal and put their dreams of contending on hold, the Wizards could get a sizable return for Bertans, as well. His skill set is much more beneficial to a contender than a rebuilding team. Because Bertans signed as a free agent this offseason, he cannot be traded until March 2. The trade deadline for the 2020-21 season is March 25.

Add the purse the Wizards get from Bertans to whatever haul of young players and picks they get from a Beal deal, plus a promising frontcourt of Rui Hachimura, Deni Avdjia, and Thomas Bryant (ACL injuries aren’t what they used to be; hopefully, the 23-year-old can bounce back), and the Wizards future might actually look brighter than anything they currently have with Bradley Beal.

Bryant’s injury has turned this into another lost season. All NBA teams deal with injuries, but this will now be the third consecutive season in which the Wizards’ plans were derailed by a devastating injury to one of their top players. Sometimes, bad luck forces teams to move on. Luckily, the Wizards already have a good base to build on and an avenue towards collecting even more building blocks if they chose to go in that direction.