Trades are a part of life in the NBA. They’re especially frequent with teams like the Washington Wizards who are actively charting down the direction in which they want to take their franchise.
So who is the most untouchable player on the Wizards roster? And who is the most likely to get shipped out?
1. Most untouchable: Bilal Coulibaly
For a team like the Wizards, the tantalizing prospect of Bilal Coulibaly’s ceiling — a terrorizing two-way force — is simply too good to ever trade.
Alright, so comparisons to someone like Kawhi Leonard are out of reach. But Coulibaly is a freak athlete with a long wingspan and springs in his feet, so something more akin to an early-career Dejounte Murray or OG Anunoby is well within reach.
2.Alex Sarr
Sarr is a relatively low-ceiling prospect with some well-documented weaknesses in his game, but he is still playing like one of the best players in his draft class. Trading the 19-year-old Sarr any time soon would be wildly premature, and he should be given at least a fair chance to develop into a franchise cornerstone.
3. Bub Carrington
Carrington has arguably been even better than Sarr as a rookie at times. It’s unlikely he develops into an All-Star, but he’s already proven himself as a solid guard with a respectable shooting ability who takes care of the basketball. Like with Sarr, Carrington is fairly untouchable at this stage due to the unknown of what he could develop into.
4. Jordan Poole
Jordan Poole remains one of the most polarizing players in the NBA, but this season’s version of him is night and day compared to last season’s. Last year he was an inefficient, sloppy chucker, but this year he is taking and making much better shots and is far more consistent on a night-to-night basis.
It’s hard to say what kind of a package a potential Jordan Poole trade would yield, as his value appears to fluctuate wildly and he still has a couple of seasons at around $30 million each left on his contract. However, as one of the only Wizards capable of making a jumpshot, Poole may just be more valuable to the Wizards than he would be to a potential trade partner.
5. Kyshawn George
Kyshawn George has been having a solid rookie season so long as you don’t look at his shooting splits. He projects as a rotational NBA player, and even though he’s come down to earth a bit from the start of his rookie season, he’s still a worthwhile player for the Wizards to invest into.
6. Corey Kispert
Corey Kispert is a good player who would be a really solid pickup as an expendable bench player for a contender. Kispert has a tendency to disappear out on the court from time to time, so he would be perfect as a bench spark plug for a team like the Milwaukee Bucks next season.
7. Justin Champagnie
Expect Justin Champagnie to rise up these rankings over time. He recently played his way onto a great-value standard NBA contract: he’ll make around $2.5 million annually through the duration of the contract. There’s a world in which Champagnie develops into an elite utility player with a long NBA career ahead of him.
8. Marcus Smart
Marcus Smart was salary dumped to the Wizards at the trade deadline, and he’s been pretty solid so far as a culture-setter.
What’s often lost in discourse surrounding rebuilding in the NBA is the need for steady veteran presence — consider how directionless the Houston Rockets looked before signing Dillon Brooks and Fred VanVleet. Smart provides the Wizards with a level of professionalism and experience that the team was lacking before his arrival, just like…
9. Khris Middleton
… Khris Middleton. Middleton is signed to a much more financially restrictive contract than Smart is, so it would be a lot tougher to move off of him if the experience goes sideways. That being said, the 2021 NBA Champion provides more at this point to a rebuilding Wizards team than he would to any other team in the league.
10. Malcolm Brogdon
In theory, Malcolm Brogdon should be coveted by any championship contender. But the 2023 Sixth Man of the Year simply has too troubled an injury history to warrant investment for most contenders at this point.
11. Saddiq Bey
Saddiq Bey is a curious case because the last time he played in an NBA game was over a full year ago for the Atlanta Hawks. The Wizards signed him to a three-year contract with an average annual value in the neighborhood of $6 million, so his purpose on the Wizards roster is obvious.
Bey’s $6 million salary is a way for the Wizards to stay above the salary floor while the sharpshooter recovers from his ACL tear. Then, once he’s recovered, his salary is low enough that contenders will likely be sending the Wizards quality offers to court Bey’s services. Bey and his contract are simply smart business, and I doubt he ever plays a game for Washington.
12. AJ Johnson
AJ Johnson on the Wizards is the definition of “taking a flier.” They grabbed a rookie for basically free — why not take him for a spin?
You’re not getting anything for these guys: Anthony Gil, Colby Jones, Richaun Holmes
These three guys are closer to being TV analysts than they are to playing crunch time in the NBA.