Oklahoma City Thunder: 3 potential landing spots for Dennis Schroder

Washington Wizards

After two seasons away from basketball, John Wall is back and ready to play. He will join Bradley Beal who has flourished in his absence and I’m more excited at the potential for a chemistry implosion if both want to take the final shot to win a game.

But if they want to be close at the end of games in the first place, they’ll need to seriously upgrade their roster. Who’s the first guard coming off the bench behind Wall and Beal? Shabazz Napier? Ish Smith? Troy Brown Jr.?

Whatever the answer is, are you sure that’s what you want if you intend to make a deep playoff run?

The Wizards can get Schroder by swapping him for Ish Smith, Jerome Robinson, and Rui Hachimura. Rui probably has more value to Washington than any other team, despite a strong statistical rookie season, his role on a competitive team is an unknown.

This could be seen as a sell high, OKC gets to look at the young combo forward with three more seasons at his rookie number. But it might be the deal-breaker, if Rui blossoms in a Thunder uniform, Washington might be kicking themselves for a while.

Washington does it to get 48 solid minutes at point guard and (I’ve been pointing back to this a lot now, but wow) he could even slip into a similar three-guard lineup next to the Wizard stars. It’d at the very least be fun and Schrӧder is more on the Wall/Beal timeline than the players they’d be sending out.

Similar to the Pacers’ mindset, Washington can wash their hands (pun) of the contract at the end of the year and move elsewhere if it isn’t to be.

If they’re giving up Rui for one season of a backup point guard then it’s not worth it. How far can Wall, Beal, Schrӧder, Dāvis Bertāns, Thomas Bryant, and Troy Brown Jr. take you? Maybe that’s an issue with the team construction, not this trade.