Washington Wizards

After acquiring Russell Westbrook this offseason to pair with Bradley Beal in the backcourt, the Wizards’ management has proven to the rest of the league that they are “all-in” on trying to win with Beal and want to win now. The main thing for the Wizards that’s been a challenge tough is that their frontcourt is a mess. 

Rui Hachimura and Thomas Bryant seem to be two talented young players, but do not have much upside other than what they have shown and Davis Bertans is more of a perimeter-oriented shooter than anything else. all the Wizards need to be a threat in the Eastern Conference is a reliable big man, which is why trading for Griffin would make sense.

The only question for the Wizards about acquiring Griffin is how they could possibly make it work. Blake Griffin is owed $36.5M this season and given that Russ and Beal’s contracts add up to about $70M, the Wizards would not have the cap space to bring in Blake Griffin unless they unloaded almost half of their roster.

Davis Bertans, Thomas Bryant, Robin Lopez and Ish Smith would all have to be on the move to either Detroit or other teams in a multi-team trade. Hypothetically, this could work in order to bring Blake Griffin to D.C., but it could not be done until near the trade deadline as both Bertans and Lopez recently signed their contracts. 

Whether it is Griffin or someone else, the Wizards need a reliable big man to pair with Russell Westbrook and Bradley Beal if they are to be a true playoff contender. Out of all the frontcourt players rumored to be on the trade market, Blake Griffin would make the most sense and if the Wizards could make the trade work financially, they should do everything they can to bring him in.

Griffin, Russ, and Beal make for a very athletic trio in the Eastern Conference and create a legit threat in the Eastern Conference. While they would not have much of a bench after this trade, the Wizards would have some solid young players along with 3 NBA All-Stars, something many teams cannot say they have.