It's coming. We know it. We feel it. It feels like a matter for when star Wizards guard Bradley Beal will be traded not if. Take a look around the league what teams are really in on Beal. You’ll hear about Philly, Denver, and Golden State as landing spots. All of those teams have the assets to get it done, yes. But there is one team I look at as the primary landing spot for the star guard, look no further than the team who Washington was just blown out by last night, despite 47 points on 45% shooting from the field by Beal, the New Orleans Pelicans.
Now, future stars Brandon Ingram and Zion Williamson should be non starters for Pelicans General Manager David Griffin. However, they have all the picks from both the Anthony Davis and Jrue Holiday trades. They also have a bevy of young players like Lonzo Ball, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Jaxson Hayes, and rookie Kira Lewis Jr. Ball and veteran sharpshooter JJ Redick would likely need to be in any deal to get near Beal’s $28.7 million salary, with Redick likely being redirected to a contender as a third team in any deal. Hayes and either Alexander-Walker or Lewis would also likely go to Washington, with a massive number of picks. Like New Orleans could send 6 or 7 picks, with none of them as swaps (I don’t think the number will be that high, likely just 4 or 5). How would it fit for both sides? For New Orleans on paper it's seamless. Beal slides into the backcourt with Eric Bledsoe, who was acquired for Holiday back in November. As they enter a starting lineup with budding stars Brandon Ingram, who was acquired for Davis, and 2019 number one overall pick Zion Williamson. As former Thunder center Steven Adams slides in the final spot. Let’s say Lewis stays in N'AWLINS as the backup point guard. Center depth could be handled by NBA veteran Willy Hernangomez and NBA newby after playing many years overseas, Nicolo Melli. They would need to become deeper on the wings with Josh Hart as the only reliable NBA player there right now, needing one or two ‘3&D’ players. However, the foundation would be set with 3 potential superstars in New Orleans.
Now for the Wizards. In December they traded Washington legend John Wall and a protected 2023 first round pick to the Houston Rockets for former MVP guard Russell Westbrook and the remaining 3 years on his massive super-max contract. Wall has the same contract situation so Washington, and I, thought that Westbrook would be a better partner for Beal than Wall, who hadn't played in nearly 2 years due to a torn achilles. It has been a disaster through 14 games as Westbrook cannot stay healthy and the Wizards are 3-11 So you would have Westbrook, Davis Bertans, a sharpshooting 4 who just signed a fresh 5-year $80 million contract in November. They have some young players to be excited about; they've drafted Rui Hachimura and Deni Avdija in the past two lotteries. They have sharpshooting bigs Thomas Bryant and Moritz Wagner, and 2018 first round pick Troy Brown Jr. has shown flashes. Ball would not fit with Westbrook so that situation would need to be figured out. However, Hayes has potential and I really really like Nickeil Alexander-Walker. They would fight over picks, but as I said I think the number would be 5 with most, if not all, unprotected. Ball, Brown, Bertans, Avdija, Hachimura, Alexander-Walker, Hayes, Bryant, and Wagner as a potential future core, not all of those players would last and be productive NBA players but they would have all but one and with a haul of extra picks coming back from New Orleans, Washington would have a bunch of future options they could make going forward. They would need to figure out what to do with the former MVP and veteran sharpshooter JJ Redick but the days now would become dark but the future could have bright openings in DC.
Let’s look at a potential Redick deal. I have 2 teams in mind and one player that could make Washington’s decision really easy. Let’s look at the 2 teams, the Boston Celtics and the Golden State Warriors. A deal to Boston is simple, they have a $28.5 million dollar traded player exception from the Gordon Hayward sign and trade to Charlotte. So they could absorb Redick’s $13 million into part of that and simply send a protected 2021 pick to Washington. The frisky team in this is Golden State, and that is due to former Wizard, Kelly Oubre Jr. Oubre was traded by Washington to the Phoenix Suns in December of 2018 for Trevor Ariza, which is a whole interesting story in itself. This past offseason, Oubre was dealt a couple of times ending up with the Warriors. This season the 25 year old wing is averaging 11.7 points and 5.6 rebounds on a career low 36% from the field and a career low 22% from 3 point range. However, last year with Phoenix, Oubre averaged a career high 18.7 points on 45% shooting from the field, a career high 35% from 3 point range while grabbing 6.4 rebounds per game. Oubre is also a free agent to be, so Washington would have to make a decision on Oubre assuming Boston would be in on Redick, which is not guaranteed.
The Wizards stink. The Pelicans are off to a rough start. It’s a complicated deal with a lot of moving parts but if you break it down it makes a lot of sense for both teams, with the case of a very interesting third team, that comes down to a very inconsistent yet talented player. Bradley Beal is a super star who can drop 50 any given night, he is the piece the Wizards need to use to start over with a bunch of picks and some solid young talent.
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