Troy Taormina – USA Today Sports Images
The Washington Wizards have a talented young core as they head into the 2013-2014 NBA season. Their roster is obviously built around their star point guard, John Wall, who is flanked by the Wizards’ first-round draft picks from the past two years, Bradley Beal and Otto Porter. This is definitely a team that could make some noise now and could be a force in the future.
However, one of the weaknesses of this Wizards team is their frontcourt. Though they have serviceable big men like Nene, Emeka Okafor and several others, they don’t exactly have any big men that can impact the game in a big way on either end of the floor. However, one trade could change that.
Cole Patty, a blogger for Hickory High and HawksHoop, sent out a tweet with a hypothetical trade that he concocted in the ESPN Trade Machine. The trade would be a three-team deal that would send Okafor to the Philadelphia 76ers, Thaddeus Young and the Wizards’ first-round pick to the Houston Rockets, and, finally, Omer Asik to the Wiz.
There’s no telling whether the other two parties would want any part of this deal, but this is an idea that should at least be explored by the front office in Washington. Last season with the Rockets, Asik had a coming out party as he averaged 10.1 points, 11.7 rebounds and 1.1 blocks in 30 minutes per game while shooting a solid 54.1 percent from the floor.
Asik would bring a lot of things to the table in Washington. He would bring them a better defensive presence than Okafor or Nene can and a bit more offensive potential than either of their current centers also. Essentially, Asik would help round out the Wizards roster even more and make them even more dangerous moving forward.
There’s no telling whether or not the Wizards will even attempt to go after Asik, but it’s a move that simply makes sense for them. If they don’t at least explore Patty’s hypothetical trade, it would be a mistake on the part of their organization.
Cody Williams is a Senior Writer with Rant Sports. Follow Cody on Twitter @TheSizzle20, add him on Google and like his Facebook page.
