7 Questions for the New-Look Washington Wizards

Now that the Washington Wizards have completed an elaborate five-team trade to land their starting point guard in Spencer Dinwiddie, it seems most questions about this season’s roster have been answered.

Well, I have plenty more, but because as Mallory Rubin and Jason Concepcion say, “Seven is the most powerfully magical number,” I’ll keep it to seven.

1.     How many moves does Tommy Sheppard have left?

Before we get into it, let’s have a round of applause for Wizards General Manager Tommy Sheppard, who at this point has earned himself the benefit of the doubt going forward. He essentially turned Russell Westbrook, Chandler Hutchinson, a few second-round picks, and our profound lack of wings into Spencer Dinwiddie, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Kyle Kuzma, Montrezl Harrell, Aaron Holiday, and the draft rights to Isaiah Todd.

At times, it felt like the Wizards were setting themselves up for failure by putting all their eggs in the Dinwiddie basket, and that might’ve been a real possibility. But for Tommy Sheppard to come away with Dinwiddie without giving up any of our new assets is one of the biggest wins in recent Wizards memory.

As of now, the roster looks like this:

Guards: Spencer Dinwiddie, Bradley Beal, Aaron Holiday, Raul Neto

Wings: Kyle Kuzma, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Davis Bertans, Deni Avdija, Rui Hachimura, Anthony Gill, Corey Kispert, Isaiah Todd

Bigs: Daniel Gafford, Montrezl Harrell, Thomas Bryant

Our problem last year consisted of a severe lack of depth at the wing. As you can see, we have the opposite problem now.

It makes sense to think the Wizards have another move or two to make before the start of the season. For starters, we may need another playmaker to join the guards. While Caldwell-Pope and Kyle Kuzma can slot in as shooting guards, they aren’t playmakers in the traditional sense, and while Holiday and Neto are solid off the bench, we don’t want to risk the offense falling completely flat when Dinwiddie and Beal are on the bench.

Veterans like J.J. Reddick and Josh Hart are still available, and the Wizards could easily create another roster spot at any given moment.

Brooklyn reportedly asked for Avdija in the Dinwiddie negotiations, and the Wizards said no. Obviously, he has value to other teams across the league. Could Deni Avdija be the answer to this question one way or the other? Well …