Wizards Can Keep Raiding Suns Despite Recent Missed Opportunity

The Washington Wizards still have a chances to continue strengthening their own asset trove.

Jan 16, 2025; Washington, District of Columbia, USA; Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker (1) looks on as Washington Wizards forward Kyshawn George (18) defends during the third quarter at Capital One Arena. Mandatory Credit: Reggie Hildred-Imagn Images | Reggie Hildred-Imagn Images

The Oklahoma City Thunder earned the postseason's first trip to the second round earlier this week, ending the Phoenix Suns' season in an unceremonious sweep in front of their beleaguered fans.

Despite their otherwise-feel-good campaign doing good work to rinse the unpleasant taste of the Kevin Durant-Bradley Beal iterations of the squad out of Phoenix's collective memory, the Suns are now just one more eliminated team forced to watch the next two months of playoff action from the couch. They're now at the same crossroads that most middling units with uninspiring futures meet, and while no outsiders can be sure of what's next in store for the Suns, the Washington Wizards have to be enthused.

Apr 27, 2026; Phoenix, Arizona, USA; Phoenix Suns forward Dillon Brooks (3) reacts against the Oklahoma City Thunder in the second half during game four of the first round of the 2026 NBA Playoffs at Mortgage Matchup Center. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

As if they hadn't already kneecapped Phoenix's once-contending trajectory enough by saddling them with Beal's onerous contract, the Wizards cleaned up in their direct return for their fading former star. Along with Chris Paul, who they swiftly flipped into Trae Young through a series of exchanges, Washington collected numerous first-round pick swaps and second-round pickups through the end of this decade to continue strengthening its asset pool into a new era of competitive Wizards basketball.

The first real chance at their directly capitalizing off of a Phoenix pick actually arrived earlier this month when the Suns barely escaped a collapse in the Play-In Tournament. They'd escape just long enough to draw the humiliating Oklahoma City matchup and nix any participation in the draft lottery, and while that meant the Wizards couldn't trade order spots in the event of a Suns miracle, they're still deep in the forest of picking a direction while evading this looming debt.

More Chances to Spoil the Suns

The Wizards have spent the last few months of their recent regular season leaving implying that they'll shoot for higher than 17 wins in the future, potentially this fall. After all, they just traded for Young and Anthony Davis, win-now acquisitions with very real chances to lead Washington's bevy of supplementary prospects into and through a wide-open Eastern Conference playoff race.

Mar 8, 2026; New Orleans, Louisiana, USA; Washington Wizards guard Trae Young (3) celebrates with guard Tre Johnson (12) during the first half against the New Orleans Pelicans at Smoothie King Center. Mandatory Credit: Matthew Hinton-Imagn Images | Matthew Hinton-Imagn Images

The Suns, meanwhile, haven't had the patience or the foresight to map out such a strategic heading. They've desperately attempted to crawl back to the league's summit ever since they lost to the Milwaukee Bucks in the 2021 NBA Finals to diminished success, seemingly falling earlier in the postseason tourney with each passing year.

No one had the 2025-26 Suns, an unexciting roster led by Devin Booker and unwanted Houston Rockets leftovers in Dillon Brooks and Jalen Green, making any meaningful noise out west, and even that surprise playoff appearance couldn't distract from their obvious talent discrepancy compared to meaningful championship bidders. This is the point where Phoenix management could realistically consider pulling the plug on the failed experiment, but their lack of controlled firsts in both 2028 and 2030 would likely leave little reward waiting at the end of any future tank-laden campaigns.

bradley beal really got 250 million and one of TWO players to get a no trade clause to miss half the games and not play defense

and the suns still gave up this for him 😭 https://t.co/vabBHIqIL1 pic.twitter.com/VjTFpsOMwl

— WizardsMuse (@WizardsMuse1) May 16, 2025

The Wizards don't even need this luxury, certainly not as much as it may have seemed when they initially sent Beal to the American Southwest.

Already, they're armed with an enviable assortment of athletic scorers and defenders to keep on developing as the organization gets more serious about nightly on-court success, but that doesn't mean they have to stop rooting for the Suns' spiraling in an attempt to keep on adding impact youngsters. They're set to round out the hand-picked corps in this summer's upcoming draft, ensuring that any Suns picks who suddenly fall into the ascending Wizards' laps in alternating years go down as salt in Phoenix's quietly-exposed wound.

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