The Wizards made a move that in and of itself would barely ripple the NBA waters — on Sunday they waived guard Shaun Livingston and center Earl Barron. Both were on non-guaranteed contracts.
Yawn. Both guys saw very limited minutes and there contributions were minimal. (For the Lakers fans and others that will inevitably tweet “we should pick them up,” note that these guys couldn’t get off the bench and were just cut by the 3-22 Wizards. They are not helping any good team. Or the Lakers.)
But as Ben Standig notes at CSNWashington.com, this is one shoe with another likely to drop soon.
The intrigue lies in what comes next. Two players waived, but none signed, leaving the roster at 13. Don’t forget of that 13, John Wall, Trevor Ariza, Trevor Booker and A.J. Price are injured with only Ariza potentially back in the coming days. That leaves nine active bodies, an unsustainable number….
Let us start with the basics. The roster as it stands has two actual guards in Jordan Crawford and Bradley Beal. That’s it, that’s the list - and neither of those two are natural floor leaders. Cartier Martin and Martell Webster can swing down into the backcourt as needed. Nene, Chris Singleton, Jan Vesely are the remaining forwards with Emeka Okafor and Kevin Seraphin at center.
Even before this moment, the team needed another point guard, especially when Price fractured his right hand two weeks ago and even more so now that the roster doesn’t actually have a healthy one.
Looks like you may see a D-League call up or something, but that the Wizards have their eyes set on trying to make bigger moves that could change their future. Of course, the biggest question remains what to do with John Wall, who is eligible for a contract extension next summer.
