Will the Washington Wizards Have a Fire Sale?
Despite having the ninth highest payroll in the NBA, the Washington Wizards have manged only a 7-16 record and are the fifth worst team in the NBA.
That's not what a team that hired high profile coach Flip Saunders and star player Gilbert Arenas return to health expected after they missed the playoffs a year ago.
The Wizards have several high-priced players, particularly on the perimeter where Arenas, Caron Butler, Nick Young, Mike Miller, Randy Foye, DeShawn Stevenson and Earl Boykins are all vying for minutes.
And the Washington Times reports the team might be ready to deal, with Butler struggling to fit Saunders' offense and large expiring contracts to Miller, Brendan Haywood and Mike James potentially valuable trade assets.
It's unclear what the Wizards could expect in return with several teams unwilling to take on long term contracts like those of Arenas, Butler and Antawn Jamison, either because they are losing money or because they want to keep cap space for next season to make a run at free agents like Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh.
The NBA trade deadline is in February and the Wizards are the first team to make it known they are open to making a deal in what could be a busy trading period, depending on what teams are still out of the playoff race in a few weeks.
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