There isn’t much hope for the Washington Wizards to be a competitive team next year. It’s going to be a tough year for the Wizards as they continue to navigate their current rebuild.
However, while they aren’t going to be competing for the Larry O’Brien (or even a playoff spot), they are still in a solid position as a franchise, especially in terms of the potential trades they could make.
Andy Bailey of Bleacher Report recently ranked every single team in the NBA based on their current trade assets, and despite their status as a lottery team, the Wizards finished with a solid ranking.
Wizards pool of trade assets ranked 17th in NBA by Bleacher Report
Bailey slotted them in at No. 17 on his list, listing Kyle Kuzma, Jordan Poole, and Malcolm Brogdon as some of their top trade assets, as well as their huge cabinet of draft picks.
Kuzma has been thrown around in trade rumors for a long time at this point, and with Washington’s new rookie class looking to take over, this could finally be the season where he gets moved.
Poole joined the Wizards last summer via a trade with the Golden State Warriors that saw Chris Paul join Stephen Curry and company out West. He didn’t have a great first season in Washington, but he put together a decent stretch to end the season.
Lastly, the Wizards acquired Brogdon in a trade with the Portland Trail Blazers that saw them ship out Deni Avdija. Brogdon is a quality veteran point guard and could be useful for a bunch of different playoff teams around the league.
The draft picks Washington has in their cabinet are useful, too, as they own some selections from the Suns, but with where the Wizards are in their rebuild, they probably aren’t looking to trade any of those right now.
That said, the players Washington has available to trade could help them streamline their rebuild and help Alex Sarr, Bub Carrington, Bilal Coulibaly, and the rest of their young core moving forward.
Washington may not be a playoff team next year, but they do have some pretty solid trade assets to play with heading into next season.