Top Stories of the Week: Wizards make minor move at the trade deadline, look to free agency

With the NBA regular season starting a little earlier, many major events also start earlier, including the trade deadline. The Wizards did little at the deadline, but could make bigger moves after some traded players clear waivers.

The Wizards trade Sheldon Mac and keep their draft picks!

On Thursday, the Wizards traded Sheldon Mac to the Atlanta Hawks for a protected second round pick. Washington stayed true to their hope to keep their draft picks this year.

Wizards stay steady in the Eastern Conference Playoff Pack

In the last week, we saw the Wizards win 111-102 last Monday against the Pacers for a season high five game winning streak. Unfortunately, they lost their next two games against the 76ers and Celtics in two consecutive nationally televised contests. Those losses also hurt because they could have helped the Wizards claim the #3 seed in the Eastern Conference, which wouldn’t be too bad considering how this season’s been.

Anyway, the Wizards did win on Saturday against the Bulls, 101-90 when Tomas Satoransky scored a new career-high 25 points! They are now 32-24, and are fourth in the Eastern Conference after their win.

Expect the Wizards to be active in Free Agency

The Wizards are expected to target veteran point guards ... even with Tomas Satoransky coming into his own. One of them is Derrick Rose, who is “unlikely” to be a Wizard, but with Tim Frazier suffering a nasal fracture, who knows?

I liked the addition of sharpshooter Bojan Bogdanovic last year, even if he ended up being a half season rental. I’d rather see Marco Belinelli than Rose, if he’s interested. Belinelli agreed to a buyout of his contract with the Hawks on Friday.

The Wizards have extra roster space, so there’s definitely room for them to experiment with multiple free agent options.

Marcin Gortat and John Wall aren’t that “warm and fuzzy” right now

Let’s say that Marcin Gortat and John Wall haven’t had the best week as of late. Gortat recently tweeted “team” win which got Wall to LOL and mention him in another tweet. Furthermore, Wall acknowledged that he wasn’t happy with Gortat last Wednesday in a SportsCenter interview, calling him the most “spoon-fed” player on the Wizards given that Wall assisted his baskets more than anyone else.

That certainly leads us to wonder, who’s at fault? Gortat for his “team” tweet? Wall for not taking the high road and staying silent? Or is it Bradley Beal because he said “Everybody Eats” after they started winning more without Wall?

I’m not sure how much Beal figures into this, so let’s just focus on Gortat and Wall. I don’t think Gortat should have put quotation marks around the word team after a big win. It certainly makes people speculate why he would do that. And for Wall, I’m not sure what he gains from exposing Gortat, or throwing Gortat under the bus.

On Thursday, Kevin Craft wrote a FanPost saying that Wall was wrong for criticizing Gortat like that, and picking a spat with J.J. Barea last month. In short, he argued that Wall was taking the “low road.”

Wall is known for being a guy who wears his emotions on his sleeve. Craft also mentioned that in another FanPost a couple weeks ago, which was a response to Marcus Atkinson’s post about the Wizards’ team identity. The good news about adopting Wall’s “me against the world” mentality is that it’s good when the Wizards are winning. But Wall also has his shortcomings about showing his chip on his shoulder when he doesn’t have to. Unfortunately, some of those things have spilled their way into the public sphere.

The Wizards have determined that the Wall vs. Gortat feud is a “nothing burger” or nothing serious. But there’s probably some fence mending in order between the two.

John Wall won’t have a signature shoe his new Adidas deal

Wall is now with Adidas after a two year free agency period. He will earn at least $4.825 million a season in base pay for the next four years, but he’ll have no signature shoe. That’s considerably lower than the $7.5 million base he was offered in 2015, which included a signature shoe. So I can’t help but think that he ends up a loser on the shoe market.

That said, he is allowed to have a “collaboration shoe” with some of Adidas’ musician clients like Kanye West or Pharrell Williams. A shoe with Kanye could hit it big, since Kanye West is one of the most popular rappers and is married to socialite Kim Kardashian. The Kardashian/Jenner family is a big influencer on pop culture, so that could pay dividends for Wall.

Regardless, Wall can still earn more with incentives, based on how far he can take the Wizards, whether he can be an NBA MVP, etc.

More links

• Candace Buckner of The Washington Post wrote about Mike Scott as one of the Wizards’ locker room favorites this season.
• Buckner also wrote that John Wall will be on crutches for a while. but the rehab timetable of six to eight weeks still applies.
• Tim Bontemps of The Washington Post reminds you that the Wizards aren’t better without Wall.
• John Wall wore some interesting glasses on Thursday against the Celtics. Check out this selfie Ted Leonsis made with Wall

• Capital One Arena will undergo a $40 million renovation which will be completed by the start of the 2018-19 NBA season. Check out the website here.

That’s all I have for the past week. If you have another link you’d like to share, feel free to write a FanPost or Enjoy the rest of your weekends.