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The Wizards' sinister plan with the Jordan Clarkson trade

In today's Wake-Up Call we take a look at the Wizards' secret plan with the Jordan Clarkson trade, how Drew Gooden helps the Wizards and where Wall and Beal rank in NBA backcourt rankings.

By Jake Whitacre
Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports

1. Trading Jordan Clarkson for cash considerations was all part of the Wizards' sinister plan

Monday night, Jordan Clarkson continued his recent tear with an 26 point, 11 assist performance against the 76ers last night. His final two points came on the game-winning layup in the closing seconds of overtime.

Clarkson's big night is a big slap in the face to those who were upset the Wizards traded the pick that became Jordan Clarkson to the Lakers for cash considerations on draft night. What people fail to see is how the pick actually part of the team's plan to destroy the league from the inside out.

Thanks to Clarkson, the Lakers moved ahead of the 76ers in the standings, which hurts their chances of holding on to their top-five protected draft pick from the Steve Nash trade. If the Lakers wind up losing that pick this year, it forces them to be even more aggressive in free agency this summer to compensate. This has two indirect, but very beneficial consequences for the Wizards:

  1. Kevin Love would look GREAT in a Lakers jersey. Sorry, Cleveland.
  2. Spending all that money this summer knocks the Lakers out of the Kevin Durant sweepstakes in 2016.
See? Trading Jordan Clarkson was all part of the plan. Sorry some of you out there just weren't patient enough to see it at the time.

2. The Wizards may have found their killer lineup, and it involves Drew Gooden

Kris Humphries' injury has finally given Drew Gooden a chance to play some extended minutes with the Wizards. In turn, the Wizards have finally gotten to see how they can operate with a big man who can stretch the floor. Ben Standig crunched the numbers over at CSNWashington, and the results with Gooden are very encouraging:

Wall, Bradley Beal, Paul Pierce, Gortat and Gooden have played together 52 minutes over parts of 11 games. In that time, their offensive rating is 117.2, yet this unit is also stingy defensively (97.1) which leads to the second-best net rating (20.2) of these groups.

Here's the kicker. In those 11 games, the Wizards are 11-0.

3. Wall & Beal land third in NBA backcourt rankings

NBA.com came out with their list of their top 10 backcourts in the NBA. Wall and Beal took third, behind the Splash Brothers and the Raptors' combination of Kyle Lowry and DeMar Derozan. Here's what they had to say about House of Guards:

The Wizards have struggled mightily since the All-Star break, and Beal hasn't quite progressed as rapidly as some people thought. But Beal and Wall are both All-Star level talents, and they're only going to improve. Coming into the season, it was reasonable to make the argument that the Wizards could challenge the Warriors for having the best guards in the NBA. That obviously hasn't proven true, but from a talent perspective, they're not far off. Beal and Wall will be fine. The rest of the Wizards, however, may be a different story.

For those of you wondering, Kyrie Irving and Dion Waiters did not crack the top 10. Better luck next year, Dion.

4. There's a Wizards-themed EP out

Like most of you, we assumed we would never see a rap song titled "Kris Humphreys" but here we are: