Bradley Beal of the Washington Wizards looks on in the second half against the Minnesota Timberwolves. (Photo : Getty Images/Patrick Smith)
The Washington Wizards is now being tossed around in various trade scenarios because of John Wall's comments.
No matter how much he tries to explain, the NBA trade rumor mill has caught wind of his "rift" with Bradley Beal. To wit, these are his comments on CSN Mid Atlantic.
"I think a lot of times we have a tendency to dislike each other on the court. ... We got to be able to put that to the side. If you miss somebody on one play or don't have something go right ... as long as you come to each other and talk. If I starting arguing with somebody I'm cool. I'm just playing basketball," Wall said.
It's true that teammates don't have to be the best of friends and even Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant had their publicized differences. But they stayed together only because they were winning. Once the title run ended, they had to go their separate ways.
Also, the top backcourt tandems in the NBA hardly shows any "dislike" for each other. You don't see that with Steph Curry and Klay Thompson, or Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum. A backcourt tandem that did not get along too well in recent memory was the Jimmy Butler-Derrick Rose pair with the Chicago Bulls. Once they missed the playoffs, the trade was sealed.
This is the challenge for the Wizards this season. If they continue to flounder, the trade talks will intensify. Pundits believe that Washington would rather trade the more expensive Bradley Beal since Wall is clearly the team's best player.
This is the primary basis for a trade being circulated around the trade rumor mill. Itech Post cited that a Hoops Hype feature where the Wizards, the Sacramento Kings and Miami Heat need an overhaul.
A three-way trade suggested was based on that video, but it erroneously involved Marcus Morris (the Wizards have Markieff). It also involved Chris Bosh of the Heat and DeMarcus Cousins.
The trade proposed had the Miami Heat giving up Bosh and Josh McRoberts and taking back Kosta Koufos, Rudy Gay and Morris. The Wizards will get DeMarcus Cousins and Bosh, and the Kings will get Beal, McRoberts and Marcin Gortat.
Any trade involving Beal can only be executed later in the season and for any deal involving Bosh, he must have a clean bill of health. Even then, he has the lowest trade value since there is always the risk of his condition. Thus, Miami only gets the scrubs (players that the other teams already wanted to trade).
It seems fair for the Kings-they lost Cousins who could leave them after two seasons for 4 and a half seasons of Bradley Beal. The Kings already have an army of centers so they don't really need Gortat.
The Wizards would be the winners of this trade since Cousins is the best player and Bosh, if healthy, would be fall behind Cousins and Beal.
There could definitely be better, less complicated deals between these three teams later in the season. This rumored scenario has its flaws.
