Lakers trade Talen Horton-Tucker for former Laker in potential package

Why the Washington Wizards could say yes to this trade:

The Washington Wizards won the Russell Westbrook trade just because they were able to get his contract off the books for manageable contracts in return. Westbrook was the player that no other team wanted and the Lakers walked right in and offered three legitimate rotation players for him AND a first-round pick.

The only player that has any real future value to the Wizards is Kyle Kuzma, who was really more of the same in Washington. Montrezl Harrell has already been traded as he was on an expiring deal and now KCP is a candidate to get traded as well.

KCP does not inherently have a lot of trade value and a young player like THT is the kind of return the Wizards are going to get for one year of KCP. He has the perfect moveable contract to lump into a bigger trade if the Wizards were going to get aggressive for a big-name player but they really are not in the position to do that.

If you really think about it, the Wizards would be getting one year of KCP and then two more years of THT in the Russell Westbrook trade. Even though THT has struggled early in his NBA career, that is an absolute win for Washington. Plus, the Wizards present a chance for THT to get his NBA feet under him in a place where the expectations are not high.

Could another contender swoop in with a better offer than this? Maybe. However, no team is going to trade a first-round pick for KCP and there are very few young players who have a contract like THT’s who are also expendable.