Washington Wizards Should Strongly Consider Trading Dejuan Blair
By Jacob Troxell
@RantSportsJacob
Anthony Gruppuso- USA TODAY Sports
The Washington Wizards acquired center Dejuan Blair over the summer in a sign-and-trade to add depth to their frontcourt, but with Nene, Marcin Gortat, Kris Humphries, Drew Gooden and Kevin Seraphin logging way more minutes, Blair clearly isn’t going to get any time in the rotation soon.
The Wizards gave up Emir Preldzic, a former second-round draft pick in 2009, for Blair. Blair has been a valuable man off the bench in years past for other teams, but it is clear the Wizards are too deep at power forward and center for him to see much more of the floor than he already is.
Blair is only averaging 3.7 MPG compared to his 15.6 last year when he played for the Dallas Mavericks. Blair also showed he can be a reliable role player when he played his first four seasons in a San Antonio Spurs uniform. In his sophomore campaign he averaged over 20 MPG, 8.3 PPG and 7.0 RPG.The following season, he put in 9.5 PPG and 5.5 RPG a night.
Blair is not a bench-warmer, and has proved that already in his young career. The Wizards are paying Blair $2 million a year until they have a team option for the 2016-17 season. With Nene, Gortat and Humphries all signed to multi-year deals, it wouldn’t make sense for the Wizards to keep Blair on their bench, as he is more than capable to come off the bench for another team and pick up 15 minutes a night.
Not to mention, the Wizards signed Seraphin to one-year, $3.8 million deal over the summer two days after the sign-and-trade for Blair, perhaps meaning that the Wizards were not completely satisfied with Blair.
The Wizards should be able to trade Blair for at worst a second-round pick, but they could also look into getting a 3-point shooter who can stretch the floor since the Wizards are only 16th in 3-point field goal percentage. As the trade deadline comes closer around February, more options should become available.
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