Our pal Clinton Yates, who's here dissect Washington's relationship to John Wall prior to his messy split with the Wizards.

For those at home, Wall is making his return to D.

C.

Tonight is a member of the Rockets.

So Clinton Should the Wizards regret trading John Wall?

You know, it's a tough question, and I'll start with just from the basketball standpoint.

The Wizards of quite obviously lost this trade.

We talked earlier in the show about how if you fall to a team like that, you probably got to re evaluate what you're doing.

They got the worst record in the East there, arguably the worst team in the league.

And on top of that Westbrook.

And this is not about him personally.

It's about the fact that the production that you hope from whomever that player might have been has simply not been there.

Even if you get a so called nice amount of triple doubles from a basketball standpoint, it's a major issue.

The thing is, though, from a cultural standpoint and Barnes, I'm from D.

C.

This is a very important thing to me, simply as a basketball fan Mawr largely never mind a fan of the MBA Was that the way that he got out of town?

They did him dirty.

You sold tickets against this guy coming back.

You sold tickets against the plan for him and Bill to be the old house of czars, the backcourt that everybody wanted to see together, the backcourt that everybody assumed was going to grow and eventually become a contender.

And then to ship him off because of an incident like what we thought happened on I G Live and claiming that he's some sort of a bad guy who's not a character person.

Unacceptable D.

C.

Basketball fans know better.

And it's not just about the n b A because we know stars because a lot of them come from where we're from.

So overall, I just think it was a bad taste in a lot of people about how it happened.

Never mind who was involved.

The guy was the most important player in the franchise history under the name Wizards.

We all know that you can't just trade them away because you're upset about something that happened on social media.

I completely agree.

Um, you know he, him and Bradley building very, very similar From a standpoint of you know, what you're gonna get on the court but also productive citizens in the community, off the court.

I know they did a lot of giving back, and I know it left wizard fans with a bad taste in the mouth the way he exited.

Um, do you regret it?

Possibly, You know, Onley.

They could tell us that.

But at the same time, I kind of felt like there was also a ceiling with Brad and and John and what they were able to accomplish, and I kind of felt the same way.

Although Russell Westbrook is, um, or accomplished player, he's very similar to John Wall, you know, So to me, the question in D.

C.

Is Do you build around Brad, or do you trade him for young assets and completely rebuild?

Because this is probably the worst team in the league, and they're not really going anywhere.

And you hate to see Bradley Bill waste all this great years for a non productive team.

So, Clinton, you just said, you know, your lifelong Wizards fan and of course, you know they're in last place in the Eastern Conference is you alluded to a swell.

How do they climb out of this situation?

And what do you make of Mats comments there like his question to you?

Do you trade Bradley Beal and hit the Reset?

You know, I thought that in previous machinations of what this front office was and has been that that would have been the smart move.

But right now, Bradley is all you've got.

You've got a hope that he wants to stay, and you could find a way to get some sort of pennies on the dollar for players or picks a room for Westbrook down the line.

And then you just tank out and rebuild.

I mean, there's nothing else really that you can think of that's going to be hopeful.

And that's what the point is.

Here.

Barnes.

I know it sounds funny, but the hope of what John Wall brought in a scenario in which nobody ever believed they were going to contend is half the battle here.

And if you traded away the one guy anybody actually liked when nobody really cared, if they won anyway, what are you doing?

That's what the issue is here.

So hopefully Brad wants to hang around.

Hopefully, they could get some pics, and maybe something happens.

But I don't trust this team across the street.

So, Matt, do you think Bill should stick around or should he want out?

You know, Bradley Bills always gonna do the right thing.

He's going to say the right thing is gonna continue to play hard.

But at the end of the day, if they take Clinton's, you know, idea and run with it, What is that?

What is that?

A to three, possibly four year process, and all the while Bradley Bills leading the league in scoring and not going anywhere.

So, like I said, I would hate to see him waste his time in his prime years.

You saw his wife put out a tweet a couple weeks ago that they're tired of it.

He's a consummate pro.

He's gonna show up and play every day, say the right thing, but I think that they need to let him, you know, cut his wings, let him free and go try to win a ring with allow him to win a ring somewhere else and rebuild George.

Nobody thinks that We're always going to the Hall of Fame, But there are a lot of people that wouldn't mind seeing his number retired in D.

C.

And that's cause you a lot about that guy.

E.

Thanks for watching ESPN on YouTube for live streaming sports and premium content.

Subscribe Thio, ESPN plus.