The Washington Wizards had their full arsenal of players available for their Monday matinee matchup with the Philadelphia 76ers to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. with the return of Bradley Beal from health and safety protocols. After an impressive 10-3 start to the season, Washington has come back to earth as they have so far failed to find consistency highlighted by bad losses at home to the Houston Rockets and Portland Trail Blazers. But seemingly whenever the questions start to stack up for the Wizards they deliver with a statement win as they did at home by upsetting and for the most part dominating last season’s No. 1 seed by a final score of 117-98. It is worth noting Philadelphia was without Danny Green, Shake Milton, and defensive stopper Matisse Thybulle.
Make no mistake about it, the Wizards are not going to trade Bradley Beal for a haul of assets at the February 10 trade deadline even if some fans implore it is the only logicial choice. Despite no understood guarantees about where Beal may take his talents to this summer as an unrestricted free agent, team president and general manager Tommy Sheppard is confident about his chances of retaining the All-NBA guard. At least the former public relations staffer knows how to spin and sell a story as such. Sheppard paints the picture of constant communication and transparency from himself to Beal that includes ownership (Ted Leonsis) and agent representation (Mark Bartelstein).
“I don’t show my cards,” Sheppard teased on local radio last week.
“We’ve had great dialogue and constant dialogue about where we are, where we’re headed and I’m not concerned,” Sheppard said on New Year’s Eve that he has since echoed again on the radio as well as in a sit down interview with The Athletic.
That would make Washington buyers over the next three-plus weeks and with a wealth of depth that could go about 13 deep, exemplified by Deni Avdija, Davis Bertans, and Aaron Holiday out of the rotation against the 76ers, the Wizards are all but certainly exploring possible consolidation trades. Sheppard is always non-stop on his phone trying to find ways to improve the franchise he is tasked in charge of and has made moves in each of his last two trade deadlines in charge. Any trade will have to get Beal’s approval and in Sheppard’s mind has to continue to entice him to stay in Washington.
Depending on the asking prices, I am not sure Jerami Grant moves the needle that much for the Wizards as Eastern Conference contenders. Maybe Domantas Sabonis or Brandon Ingram is available at a reasonable cost that is worth moving on from a young player and/or future first-round picks. Whatever Tommy Sheppard pulls off, he will be looking to put together as competitive a team as possible for the upcoming Eastern Conference playoffs that will serve as one final audition for Beal’s future services to try and prove that the Wizards can contend for a championship in the near future, Beal’s largest desire.
Sheppard has pulled a rabbit out of his metaphorical hat already a few times in his nearly three-year tenure in charge, but he will need to yet again to improve his chances of re-signing Beal this summer from better than, at best, a coin flip presently.
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