2021 NBA Trade deadline: Bradley Beal and four players who need rescuing

NBA trade deadline Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

It’s a fascinating time to be a basketball fan with the 2021 NBA trade deadline approaching. As teams look to improve their title hopes or rebuild for the future, players of different calibers tend to be moved around this time of the year.

Unfortunately, this season there aren’t many big names expected to be moved before the March 25 trade deadline. Contrary to popular demand, fledgling teams will continue to hold onto their best players like children opening toys on Christmas morning, despite the need for a roster overhaul.

While it’s great for fans to have good/great players on the team even though the franchise stinks, to have a sense of hope, these players tend to get a bad reputation as not being “winning players” despite their talent level. With that in mind, let’s take a look at five players who need to be rescued from an abysmal franchise ahead of the 2021 NBA trade deadline, starting with the most obvious, Bradley Beal.

NBA trade deadline rescue candidate No. 1: Bradley Beal

What can I say? Bradley Beal has ascended into a top-10 player in the NBA but continues to play for one of the league’s worst franchises. Essentially he’s a superstar playing for a G-League team. Despite experiencing a five-game win streak earlier this year, the Washington Wizards are 15-26, sitting outside of the playoff hunt, even with the expanded field allowing two extra teams a shot at the postseason.

Though he’s having a down year shooting from the perimeter, his overall field goal percentage has increased, and free throw numbers are up as well, and he currently leads the league in scoring with 32.1 points per game.

He says he wants to be a Wizard for life and retire as a member of the franchise, but he also said he’s tired of losing, something Washington appears comfortable with. He only signed a two-year extension in 2019 with a player option on the final year. So if the Wizards don’t prove they are committed to building a winning team around Bradley Beal, he may be gone relatively soon. Of course, that’s easier said than done when they already have over $110 million in cap space committed to Beal, Russell Westbrook, and Davis Bertans over the next two seasons (assuming Westbrook and Beal exercise their player options for 2022).

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