5 teams that should have regrets about the 2019 offseason

4. Washington Wizards

What did the Washington Wizards do the wind up on this wayward list, you wonder? Aside from signing three point guards rather than re-signing Tomas Satoransky, Washington also drafted Rui Hachimura at No. 9 overall and signed Bradley Beal to an extension. But wait — why are those bad things? In isolation, each of the moves could be framed as a positive.

What the three decisions all share in common, however, is that they effectively freeze the trade assets of a team attempting to rebuild. The majority of the Wizards roster is not likely to attract much attention from rival front offices. In the span of a few months, Washington has turned their only interesting trade chips into a replica of the team that won 32 games last year.

Satoransky’s deal with Chicago is evidence enough of his perceived value around the league. With John Wall on the shelf for the foreseeable future, Sato’s value was likely to climb during the 2019-20 campaign.

A rebuilding franchise would have been wise to retain a young asset, goose his trade value running a team with no other experienced point guards on the roster, then shop him at the trade deadline. Instead, the Wizards let an asset walk out the door.

With the ninth pick in a draft that featured a startling level of trading among lottery picks, the Wizards kept their pick and selected a player widely considered to have the lowest ceiling of any of this summer’s top 10 picks.

The decision will look brilliant if Hachimura hits, but a team in Washington’s position probably shouldn’t have been banking on getting a hit on the ninth pick anyway. Lottery picks are extremely valuable trade assets in today’s NBA and the Wizards’ timeline makes it more advantageous for them to trade present value for future value.

Even if you believe Hachimura will provide future value, reaching for a player you like in the draft narrows the team’s options in the future — they cannot trade him for value if he doesn’t work out, because no other team had the player valued as highly to begin with. If Hachimura is not successful early on, the Wiz will have lost another trade asset.

Finally, the Wizards signed Bradley Beal to an extension that allows Beal to opt out and enter free agency after 10 years of service. While this contract is clearly beneficial for Beal in that it allows him sign the maximum contract possible, it makes him ineligible to be traded this season.

Just like that, the Wizards’ final and most important trade chip is off the table. The Wizards are now facing a losing season, with relatively few young prospects developing on the team, followed by the very real possibility of Bradley Beal leaving in free agency.