When a franchise such as the Washington Wizards perennially makes the playoffs and do not go very deep — a second-round elimination in three of the last five years and now an even disappointing turnout such as a first-round exit with just two games won — the front office typically starts to deliberate hard if this is truly their “it” core and on some rare occasions, the franchise player is even questioned. It happened to the L.A. Clippers early this year with Chris Paul being traded to the Houston Rockets with relatively-young all-star forward Blake Griffin following suit.
Fortunately for the Wizards, that does not appear to be the case. According to NBC Sports Washington's Chase Hughes, guard Bradley Beal — one half of the explosive backcourt tandem along with John Wall — have already been asked by the front office to weigh in on potential free agent targets.
Bradley Beal said he has been consulted by the Wizards front office on free agent moves: '[Grunfeld] asked me my opinion on some guys, some guys he was thinking about bringing in. I give him my honest opinion.'
— Chase Hughes (@ChaseHughesNBCS) April 28, 2018
This is something out of the ordinary because general managers usually just consult their top player (Wall, unquestionably) and everyone else is available unless the second-best player on the pecking order is an elite exception. Clearly, they still have faith in Beal as a second option and all, but this confirms that their backcourt will definitely be back.
What type of moves the Wizards could do, however, is a little murky considering that they do not have the requisite cap space to make any splashes, having just locked up all-around swingman Otto Porter to a gargantuan max contract extension. This is on top of the four-year $64-million deal they gave Ian Mahinmi (considered by many as the worst contract in the league), which means that the Wizards could probably only sign lower tier talent at this point and obtain younger players through the draft.
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