The Washington Wizards have made their rebuilding strategy abundantly clear over the last year: stack young talent and add veteran players to mentor them.
Adding young talent is the focal point, while bringing in vets is the hidden key.
Washington's vision with the veteran additions have been to allow for them to mentor their young core, leave a lasting impact and them flip them for additional compensation in hopes of positioning themselves to bring in more assets.
The Wizards succeeded doing exactly that with Jonas Valanciunas after signing the big man last offseason.
However, they didn't have the same luck offloading Malcolm Brogdon.
Considering the lack of availability for the injury riddled guard combatted by the realization that the Wizards moved on from Deni Avdija in exchange for Brogdon and the draft pick to land Bub Carrington continues to feel more and more like a mistake.
Especially considering the Wizards were forced to watch Avdija emerge into a rising star with the Portland Trail Blazers this past season, while eventually losing Brogdon for nothing in free agency.
Although it's fair to be disappointed with the Wizards front office for the guard not working out, it's hard to blame the Wizards for failing to move on from him ahead of the trade deadline in February because quite frankly the playmaker had no value on the market.
And if you don't believe me, just consider the fact that Brogdon remain unsigned in free agency for nearly the entire offseason before he finally managed to land with the New York Knicks on a one-year deal.
To make things even more clear, Brogdon's deal doesn't even guarentee him a spot on the Knicks roster ahead of next season.
Instead, he'll have to earn his spot on the hopeful contenders' roster after signing a training camp deal with the Knicks.
The fact that Brogdon remained unsigned through the first few waves of free agency and could only drum up enough interest from the Knicks to sign a training camp deal shows exactly why the Wizards couldn't trade him ahead of the trade deadline.
With no value, Washington had absolutely no choice but to hold onto Brogdon because even if they did find an interested suitor, they would have likely been forced to attach picks to him in any deal.
At that point, with his contract set to come off the books this offseason anyways, the Wizards were forced to let the guard walk in free agency.