Bill Simmons' NBA trade value columnis always a fun read. This year, he's broken it up into three parts and ranked 50 players. The two Wizards cornerstones show up in Part II, with John Wall coming in at No. 25 and Bradley Beal right behind him at No. 29.
Simmons' section for Wall (hidden in a footnote):
His last 21 games: 24.3 PPG, 8.3 APG, 5.0 RPG, 47-37-79 splits. In other words, GIVE ME A MAX EXTENSION THIS SUMMER! The poor Wizards have to roll the dice there and hope he stays healthy, if only because he's the same age as Damian Lillard. Historically, these decisions have always worked out poorly for the Wizards - and by "poorly," I mean "in ways that turn Wizards fans into alcoholics."
And his section for Beal, who he groups with Damian Lillard.
In general, the 2-guard position has turned into a closer-by-committee of specialty guys. And that's what makes Beal such a commodity: 19 years old, sweet stroke, underrated rebounder, excellent 3-point shooter (48 percent since New Year's Day), hard worker. What am I missing? Other than the Brow, he's my favorite guy from the 2012 draft; only the residual stink of the Washington Professional Basketball Team could derail him.
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So Lillard wasn't a horrendous Rookie of the Year choice, even if I attended last week's Clips-Blazers game and was shocked by how easily Chris Paul abused him on both ends. There's some mild Damon Stoudamire potential here: In 1996, Stoudamire, 22 at the time, won ROY on the 21-win Raptors by going 19 and nine and making 40 percent of his 3s. He never got better. (Poor Damon - we picked on him in both parts of this column.) But I'd bet anything that Beal leapfrogs Lillard on next year's list. Especially because I'm picking next year's list.
Both seem fairly rated to me, though Wall has the potential to be much higher. The five players above Wall: Al Horford, Brook Lopez, Ricky Rubio (yeah, not sure about that one), Tony Parker and Kevin Love.