The Washington Wizards are in the midst of their long-awaited rebuild and throughout the last couple of season, they've tried to take a page out of the book of success from other teams around the league.
Looking at the Oklahoma City Thunder, led by Sam Presti, they may be the one team in recent memory that have reshaped how team's will attack their rebuilds solely off of how quickly OKC not only got back on their feet in a loaded Western Conference, but also to win the franchises first NBA Championship this past season.
The Thunder used the desperation of team's around the league looking to move on from unwanted contracts and/or veteran deals to land additional draft compensation and young players.
OKC allowed for these players to show they had plenty left in the tank, raise their trade value and then shut them down in order to get a solid return.
The most known example of the Thunder's strategy is Al Horford, who the Boston Celtics eagerly traded for following his impressive stint in Oklahoma City.
Now, the Wizards have began to try their hand at this strategy with the likes of Jonas Valanciunas, Malcolm Brogdon, Marcus Smart, Khris Middleton and now CJ McCollum.
Of the veterans the Wizards have brought in, not many have managed to make an impact, at least not to the point that Washington was able to flip them.
In fact, Middleton's tenure with the Wizards has been the exact opposite of impressive and at this point in his career, he may be hurting Washington more than he's helping them.
Middleton has dealt with injury woes over the last couple of seasons and since landing in D.C. after the Milwaukee Bucks traded him for Kyle Kuzma, the same trend has continued for the veteran forward.
After picking up his $33.2 million player option this offseason, he not only added to the Wizards struggles of finding a trade partner for him, but he also remains on a roster who could largely benefit in having more minutes to spare at the same position he plays.
With the likes of Bilal Coulibaly, Cam Whitmore, Kyshawn George and Will Riley, the more front court minutes available, the better.
However, for the Wizards to allow for Middleton to rebuild his trade value, they can't just place him on the bench.
As a result, the Wizards will likely be forced to take minutes away from their young wings, solely in hopes that Middleton can stay healthy and show enough promise that they can offload his contract to a desperate team ahead of February's NBA trade deadline.