Washington Wizards Could Be Sellers At Trade Deadline

Time flies when you’re having fun, right? The Washington Wizards are below .500, missing basically half of their rotation and time has still flew by incredibly fast. This season, needless to say, hasn’t been very fun. It’s almost mid-January and the season is essentially halfway over.

The Washington Wizards probably would’ve been a top team in the Eastern Conference if they stayed healthy this season. But of course, we cannot control their injury situation and it’s not a legitimate excuse for dropping winnable games — yes, I’m still salty about the loss to the Los Angeles Lakers at home.

Randy Wittman‘s club has displayed flashes of being a good basketball team. They’ve beaten the San Antonio Spurs, Cleveland Cavaliers and most recently the Chicago Bulls while missing both Bradley Beal and Marcin Gortat.

Even though they find themselves just a few games out of the NBA Playoff picture, you have to wonder when/if the team will eventually pull the plug. The teams ahead of Washington are all battling for a spot and the differences between them all are minuscule.

Orlando, Boston, New York and Charlotte are all next to the Washington Wizards in the standings.

Each team expected to make the playoffs this year, but obviously not all of them will. Only one of the four mentioned teams will likely crack the playoffs, meaning the other three will have to call it a season at some point in the near future.

Instead of finishing the season with a roster full of players with expiring contracts, the Wizards could opt to blow it up at the trade deadline, which is on February 18th.

According to Ken Berger of CBS Sports, the Wizards are one of many teams that could be sellers next month:

You could be the Washington Wizards (16-19), who league sources say are hoping to put together a rare 10-12 game stretch at or close to full health before deciding whether they’re going to be sellers in the trade market with the deadline approaching Feb. 18.

Ernie Grunfeld is typically active at the trade deadline, so it wouldn’t surprise me if he makes a move or two, but I would be shocked if the team completely blows their roster up. Why? It’s simple, really. The people running the team — meaning, Grunfeld and Wittman — are both on one year deals. They need the Wizards to make the playoffs for job security and “selling” probably wouldn’t help them do that.

Besides, who can the Washington Wizards possibly sell?

Everyone on the roster besides John Wall, Gortat and Kris Humphries are on expiring deals. The Wizards purposely signed players that will expire in the summer so they can pursue Kevin Durant.

Contending teams might be willing to give up a first round pick for the likes of Nene and Jared Dudley to solidify their rotation, but those are the only players that might have some value. Washington will not be moving Wall, Otto Porter or Kelly Oubre at the deadline. Bradley Beal is expected to return soon, and a trade involving him is unlikely as well.

Teams aren’t going to be up all night calling Grunfeld about DeJuan Blair‘s availability. The rest of the players — Gary Neal, Drew Gooden, Alan Anderson and Humphries — don’t have much value. Giving them up for second round picks that will inevitably be used on Jan Vesely‘s siblings doesn’t make much sense.

This season hasn’t gone completely according to plan, but the interest level has increased. Washington will need to put together a string of wins in order to stay within the playoff hunt. If they fail to get healthy, they could potentially become “sellers,” as Berger put it. It’ll certainly be interesting to see what happens going forward.