A Blazers fix?

The Wizards currently sit 11th in a top-heavy Eastern Conference. John Wall is out for the season with an injury that may or may not linger into next year, making it two straight seasons their star point guard will miss 40+ games. 

Come next October, Wall will be 29 and entering his 10th (how is that possible??) year as a pro. Not a promising outlook, especially for a player who relies on his quickness. 

Even before Wall's injury, it was reported the Wizards were looking to sell. 

Hear that, Neil Olshey? So throw the Wiz that 2019 first-round pick you're apparently itching to ditch for Jeremy Lin, add in maybe a future second-rounder, and:

Or:

Or, if you can't dump Leonard:

Would the Wizards do it? I think so. 

In Harkless and Leonard, they get a couple young-ish assets who you could make the argument still may not have reached their full potentia--I take that back. Leonard turns 27 in February? Jesus.

But the biggest draws for the Wiz are the first-round pick (giving them two picks in the 2019 draft to pair with Troy Brown Jr., who they selected 15th in 2018 and is still only 19 years old) and the cap flexibility.

The cap flexibility is no small return, either. Portland sends two players whose contracts expire at the end of next season. Porter's massive contract goes through 2021. So, in the likely event things continue south in Washington, this trade speeds up the rate at which the Wizards can completely blow things up. That's appealing. 

In the interim, the Wiz get a couple players who can keep them competitive. They could probably sell a decent percentage of the fan base on a promising fresh start. Maybe Wall miraculously plays at an All-Star level for 80 games next year and they can even be a middle seed in the Eastern Conference. 

Or they get a nice return on Bradley Beal, get whatever they can for John Wall (which is reportedly nothing, because he is being paid almost $50 million in the year 2023 -- when are GMs gonna learn it's better to lose a star than get stuck with one??), try and forget Dwight Howard ever happened, and start over.

Should the Blazers do it? Hell yes. 

Otto Porter Jr. is essentially what they hoped Harkless would blossom into -- a strong, versatile wing defender capable of shouldering the scoring load some nights. A starting five of Nurkic-Aminu-Porter Jr.-McCollum-Lillard? That's nice.

Sure, the Blazers still don't stand a chance against the Warriors this year. But next season, the Warriors lose DeMarcus Cousins. If they also lose Durant (or maybe Klay Thompson?), there's no reason why whatever roster Portland builds around a Nurkic-Porter Jr.-Lillard-McCollum foursome shouldn't compete for the top seed in the West.

There would still be issues to address. The Blazers probably can't afford to keep Aminu when his contract expires at the end of this season. The bench is still Zach Collins, Jake Layman, and a couple undersized guards who back up similarly undersized guards. But maybe Zach Collins takes that next step in 2019-2020, and then you're only a couple role players (some dudes with size and athleticism, please) away from being a very dangerous team.

Hmm.