Wizards have had trade talks with East playoff team about 26-year-old center

The Washington Wizards are in an interesting position heading into next year, as they could choose to go in any number of different directions this offseason.

The most likely scenario this summer for Washington will be to keep the seem mostly the same while building around Bilal Coulibaly and whoever they take with the second-overall pick in the draft.

However, if they manage to put the right pieces around those two guys, they could not only accelerate the development of their young core but also potentially add new building blocks into the mix.

A recent rumor indicates that the Wizards could be considering this plan of action. They could try to make a move that would shake up their current roster while also improving for the future.

Wizards have had trade talks with Knicks about Mitchell Robinson

According to Ian Begley of SNY, the Wizards are one of a group of teams that have shown an interest in potentially trading for New York Knicks center Mitchell Robinson.

"So the fact that Mitchell Robinson’s name has come up in some of the Knicks’ trade conversations with opposing teams isn’t all that surprising (The Wizards are among the teams whose talks with the Knicks have included dialogue on Robinson. I’m sure several other teams have talked to New York about Robinson, their 26-year-old starting center)."

- Ian Begley, SNY

Robinson got injured in the postseason as the Knicks were in the midst of an impressive playoff run that saw them take down the Philadelphia 76ers in six games and lose to the Indiana Pacers in seven.

He was also injured for the majority of the regular season, only appearing in 31 games for New York. In those games, Robinson averaged 5.6 points, 8.5 rebounds, 1.2 steals, and 1.1 blocks while shooting 57.5% from behind the three-point line. The 26-year-old big man started 21 of those 31 games.

For the Wizards, bringing in Robinson would create a core of him, Coulibaly, Deni Avdija, and the second pick (potentially Alex Sarr or Zacharie Risacherr). That would be a great defensive group for the future.

In order to make a deal happen, the Wizards would likely have to send out significant assets, and the Knicks would have to be able to re-sign Isaiah Hartenstein in free agency.

Hartenstein was an integral piece of the pizzle for New York in the playoffs, so trading Robinson would be a reasonable idea for the Knicks if they wanted to prioritize other parts of the roster.

Perhaps the Knicks would like to snag Kyle Kuzma from the Knicks in the deal, as he would give them a nice boost at the forward position and in the scoring department.