5 NBA Trades I Can See Happening Before The Deadline

[hpantazo]

I believe that Bradley Beal may be traded to the Lakers by the Washington Wizards. The Wizards may be looking to rebuild their team, and trading Beal could allow them to acquire draft picks and potentially rebuild around a player like Victor Wembanyama.


https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10060181-lakers-rumors-la-saving-coveted-draft-picks-for-superstar-trade-bradley-beal-linked

What kind of Laker fanboi fantasy fiction is that?!? Highly coveted 2027 & 2029 first round picks? Lol. The Lakers don’t own their 1st round pick until 2026. It’s more likely Victor Wembanyama could be playing his 2nd All Star game for the Pelicans by then.

The Lakers have the ability to provide a salary cap-clearing deal by including Westbrook, as well as draft picks and the possibility for the Wizards to potentially acquire Wembanyama with their own draft selection.

This potential trade may occur due to the large contract that Beal holds. It seems that the Wizards are looking to rebuild and the signing of Beal was likely for the purpose of trading him for assets, rather than keeping him on the team.

The Lakers assets are mediocre at best. Their pick is not in the running for Wembanyama, it belongs to the Pelicans. They don't have many picks left to trade, they have no prospects to trade, and many teams with much better assets can easily provide cap relief. The Wizards are not moving Beal largely for cap relief, if they move him, they want a set of strong assets. Look at what the Lakers gave up for AD for example.

[JSD]

How much more do I have to write to make this clearer? The Wizards trading Beal for Westbrook and then cutting him is actually an asset because it puts their own pick in a better position to win the lottery by having a worse win-loss record.

[hpantazo]

How much more do I have to write to make this clearer? The Wizards trading Beal for Westbrook and then cutting him is actually an asset because it puts their own pick in a better position to win the lottery by having a worse win-loss record.

The Wizards can very easily accomplish that all on their own in several different ways without giving up assets to anyone else. Nevermind giving away their best player for basically nothing when there are so many teams around the league who would give up excellent trade packages for him. Any other perspective is Lakers media propaganda.

[GreenlyGreeny]

If the Wizards wanted to collapse to try to win Wembanyama, here’s one way if the Lakers and Jazz bite:

WAS In: Westbrick, Conley, Gay, 2025 LAL 1st swap, 2026 LAL 1st, 2027 UTA 1st, 2028 LAL 1st, 2029 LAL 1st swap
WAS Out: Beale, Porzingis

UTA In: Porzingis
UTA Out: Conley, Gay, 2027 UTA 1st

LAL In: Beale
LAL Out: Westbrick, 2025 LAL 1st swap, 2026 LAL 1st, 2028 LAL 1st, 2029 LAL 1st swap

So basically they’d turn Beale and Porzingis into the following while also absorbing some bad contracts that are completely off the books after next season:

2025 LAL 1st swap
2026 LAL 1st
2027 UTA 1st
2028 LAL 1st
2029 LAL 1st swap

Note: Danny would probably insist on top 1, 3 or 5 protection, but the rest would be unprotected.

It’s a solid haul for Beale/Porzingis and not sure anything better would be out there. I really hate this trade because Beale would obviously start lobbying JT to come to LA to replace LeBron in 2025 or 2026.

[Celtics2021]

How much more do I have to write to make this clearer? The Wizards trading Beal for Westbrook and then cutting him is actually an asset because it puts their own pick in a better position to win the lottery by having a worse win-loss record.

The Wizards have functionally the same record with Beal and without (10-13 with, 6-8 without assuming they hold onto their 20-point 2nd half lead tonight), so I’m not sure that this rationale completely holds.