Los Angeles Lakers: 3 stars to target ahead of 2019 NBA Trade Deadline

3. Bradley Beal, SG, Washington Wizards

What do you know? Bradley Beal is a superstar basketball player. That fact often gets overlooked because he’s always playing alongside John Wall. However, since Wall’s season came to an early end, his co-star has been lighting it up.

During that nine-game stretch, Beal is averaging 30.2 points, 6.4 assists, 5.4 rebounds and 2.4 steals per game. Those are MVP-esque numbers for a guy who was largely pigeonholed as a scoring specialist before that.

With the Washington Wizards seemingly going scorched earth, ESPN‘s Adrian Wojnarowski claimed that every player was available only a few weeks back. Although there have been varying reports regarding the matter since, Sporting News‘ Sean Deveney has claimed that the asking price for Beal right now is two players and two draft picks.

That’s a steep price to pay, but an understandable one. The Wizards may be preparing to go into rebuild mode, and would be eager to shed salary if so. Although Beal’s contract isn’t absurdly overpriced, it is an expensive one. Moving him for expiring/affordable contracts and draft assets makes sense for a team that’s about to have big salary cap problems.

Chances are the Wizards are only going to move Beal if they get an offer they can’t refuse. However, if the Lakers are serious about providing James with a sharpshooter and co-star capable of taking this team to the next level, it wouldn’t hurt to give Wizards general manager Ernie Grunfeld a call.