As is his wont this time of year, ESPN's Chris Broussard is lighting up his Twitter feed with trade rumors, most of which will never amount to more than that. Today, he wrote that the Wizards are interested in trading for Orlando Magic guard JJ Redick -- along with Indiana, San Antonio, Milwaukee and Detroit. Each of those teams would appear to have far more to offer for Redick than the Wizards do -- particularly if John Wall, Bradley Beal and Nene are, as reported, off the table in virtually all trade talks.
This JJ Redick deal makes no sense for the Wizards. For one thing, what about Bradley Beal? The team loves him, he's been playing great, his upside is far higher than Redick's and, not long ago, the Wizards picked Beal with the third overall selection in the NBA Draft. What's more, Redick want's a lot of money to re-sign, according to AJ Wojnarowski:
Sources say Redick's agent, Arn Tellem, will likely start the bidding at four years, $40 million for Redick on the free-agent market.
Redick won't get that kind of a deal, but teams with interest in the guard tell Yahoo! Sports they could be willing to pay him in the range of $7 million annually. Redick has great value for contending teams who understand how far he grew under former Magic coach Stan Van Gundy. His ability to make shots comes at a premium in the NBA.
Notice how Redick has great value for contending teams, something the Wizards are not. Notice also how he's going to get $7 million per year or more. No way the Wizards will give him that. So that deal isn't happening. And that's part of the problem with Broussard. He passes along speculation no matter how silly it is. Not that I'm trying to pick on Broussard -- he's not alone in that.
Undaunted, Broussard passes along another Wizards rumor. This one has Washington discussing moving Jordan Crawford -- whom the team does want to move -- to the Boston Celtics in exchange for Fab Melo. Boston has plenty of guards already, but Crawford would give them another backcourt scoring option who can help space the floor with Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett.
In Fab Melo, the Wizards would get a second Brazilian big man -- Nene is the other -- who can is a 7-footer with good size who provides length, bulk and a willingness to mix it up in the paint. Melo has been a asterisk for Boston, this season, playing only about 3 minutes a game. He was the 22nd pick in the 2012 NBA Draft and he's a real project. NBA scouts like his defense and rebounding, but his offensive game is very limited, he has no post moves to speak of, and his motor to play the game is often questioned by people who know his game well.
The Wizards already have big men like Nene, Emeka Okafor and, another South American project, Kevin Seraphin, who has taken a big step backwards this year. The appeal of Melo is that while it's very unlikely he will ever become a star, he could be a solid contributor off the bench, giving the Wiz some big man insurance if Nene goes down to injury [which is always a very real possibility], or, less likely, if Okafor does. Since Melo is on his rookie contract he's young and cheap, which appeals to a rebuilding team like Washington, and his salary will fit nicely with Jordan Crawford's contract, which pays him a million dollars and change this season.
So Broussard's second twitter rumor involving the Wizards -- Crawford for Melo -- makes a lot more sense than anything involving JJ Redick coming to Washington. However, I'd like to see the Wizards get more for Crawford than just Fab Melo, who has done nothing with the Celtics or in the NBDL this year. The Wiz need to come away with Boston's first round pick, in addition to Melo, for that deal to work for Washington.
