Official Trade Thread - Part XLIV

[DonPatelli]

I feel the Wizards have a good chance to bring Kevin Durant home. He won two rings with the Warriors went to Brooklyn to create a new environment and win a ring with a group of new players to solidify his legacy. It didn't quite work out due to some issues out of his control and when it even seemed like the Nets were clicking Durant recently suffers a minor injury and Kyie Irving is just now traded. Kevin Durant being 34 now is still a great player, a current top 5 player, who can still play until he is 40 because of his skill and love for the game. I feel he has still 4 more years of premium basketball left, and his scoring prowess will never leave him. I feel he always wanted to end his career in Washington or at least join the team at a time when they had a chance to win a ring and if it all made sense from a management, coaching and players on the team perspective. I feel now is a time that makes sense for both the Washington Wizards and Kevin Durant to join forces.

The following trade makes sense and checks out.

https://basketball.realgm.com/tradechecker/saved_trade/7658133

Incoming Players
Kevin Durant
34 year old, 6-10, 225 lb SF from Texas
29.7 ppg, 6.7 rpg, 5.3 apg in 36.0 minutes in 2022-2023
David Duke
23 year old, 6-4, 207 lb SG from Providence
3.0 ppg, 1.1 rpg, 0.9 apg in 9.0 minutes in 2022-2023

Outgoing Players
Will Barton
32 year old, 6-5, 181 lb GF from Memphis
7.5 ppg, 2.7 rpg, 2.5 apg in 19.7 minutes in 2022-2023
Kyle Kuzma
27 year old, 6-10, 221 lb F from Utah
21.3 ppg, 7.6 rpg, 4.0 apg in 34.9 minutes in 2022-2023
Delon Wright
30 year old, 6-5, 185 lb G from Utah
6.3 ppg, 3.1 rpg, 3.4 apg in 21.8 minutes in 2022-2023
Johnny Davis
20 year old, 6-5, 195 lb F from Wisconsin
1.1 ppg, 0.7 rpg, 0.2 apg in 5.0 minutes in 2022-2023

Also the Wizards would probably have to give up their next 3 1st round drafts of some combination of draft picks, I'm thinking 2 first rounds picks, and a second-round pick gets it done.

We the Wizards, then have a starting lineup of Monte Morris, Bradley Beal, Kevin Durant, Kristaps-Porzingis and Daniel Gafford. We also have a pretty good bench we can continually improve on. The DNA makeup of this is a great team with a strong 4-year window to win an NBA Championship Ring.

The Nets then have a starting lineup of Spencer Dinwiddie, Dorian Finney-Smith, Kyle Kuzma, Ben Simmons, Nic Claxton.
That is as strong and interesting starting lineup, they have great bench depth and moving forward they have a boat load of draft picks from the Mavericks and Wizards to continue to rebuild and be in contention for a long time.

Thoughts?

[nate33]

The Wizards can't trade any picks until 2028 because they are encumbered.

This type of trade could make sense in the offseason, assuming the Wizards make the playoffs and convey their encumbered pick to New York. They could then trade the 2024, 2026 and 2028. Kuzma would have to agree to a S&T though. Barton wouldn't be on the books to trade, but Kuzma's new, higher salary (plus Wright and Davis) will probably be enough to provide matching salary for Durant.

I'd probably do it. I don't know if this is the best offer for Durant though. Someone like New Orleans could offer more.

[doclinkin]

I feel the Wizards have a good chance to bring Kevin Durant home.

Scuttlebutt 1 suggests that Durant does not want to play in DC. Does not want to play close to home. He went to school far away though Maryland recruited him. He enjoyed OKC since it was nowhere near here.

Scuttlebutt 2 says he does not want to play for the Wizards, specifically. Has been friendly with John Wall and even then was uninterested since he grew up in the area and knows clearly how mediocre (at best) the management has been.

Also, he's chasing rings. Who on this team would he want to play with? I like KD, but I don't see it happening.

[DonPatelli]

Yeah well since Wizards draft picks are encumbered and they can't' really do anything until the offseason it will be tough. If they want something done now, they will have to get creative. Maybe they could add a player like Deni Avdij and take a salary back that the Nets don't want or somehow get a third team involved to make the trade happen and make more sense.

[NatP4]

4 year window? With a 34 year old star player?

[Nigel Tufnel]

This would be terrible. Trading all of our future 1st rounders for a 34+ fading, oft-injured, easily disgruntled player? I'd much rather trade KP to get back a first rounder or more, and hope to get lucky in the draft. Even with KD, the Wiz would not have enough to win now.

[FAH1223]

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A hallmark of Tommy Sheppard’s tenure leading the Washington Wizards basketball operations department has been his creative, opportunistic activity on the trade market. Four-fifths of the team’s current starting lineup arrived in Washington via trades: Daniel Gafford, Kyle Kuzma, Monté Morris and Kristaps Porziņģis. In the hours before last season’s trade deadline, the Wizards completed three deals.

With several days remaining until this season’s NBA trade deadline expires Thursday afternoon, league sources from other teams told The Athletic they expect the Wizards to remain active in efforts to upgrade the team rather than a sell-off.

This gibes with something Sheppard said shortly after he traded fourth-year forward Rui Hachimura to the Los Angeles Lakers for Kendrick Nunn and three future second-round picks and also generated a trade exception worth approximately $6.3 million.

“Make no mistake,” Sheppard said, ”we are a team definitely in construction mode as we keep growing, but the goal is still to make the playoffs. We’re not trying to get worse. … Every player in that locker room, they believe we’re going to get better. When we get healthy and we can stay healthy, we can go on a run. I’m not going to take that away from them.”

What follows is a collection of the latest intel we’ve gathered about the Wizards’ trade-market intentions and possibilities. We’ve granted league sources anonymity to give them the freedom to speak candidly and because NBA rules prohibit officials from teams to openly discuss players who play for other teams.

Kyle Kuzma
Kuzma still plans to decline his $13.0 million player option for 2023-24 and enter unrestricted free agency in July for the first time in his career, as The Athletic reported two months ago.

Wizards officials would like to re-sign Kuzma, who will turn 28 in July, to a long-term deal. If they do not trade him in the days ahead, they would enter the summer with his Bird rights.

In free agency, those Bird rights would allow the Wizards to re-sign him to a first-year salary up to the maximum player salary for a player with six years’ tenure in the league. The Bird rights also would allow Washington to offer him a five-year contract, while all other teams would be limited to offering him at most four years.

Wizards decision-makers don’t sound all that concerned about their ability to retain Kuzma, and publicly at least, Kuzma has said he could “100 percent” see himself re-signing with the Wizards, adding, “They showed me love. They have allowed me to have a platform to show my game and show the league I’m not just a role player. I’m someone that’s arriving right now. That’s the biggest thing for me.

“I want to keep elevating. Having a leadership position, having somewhere where I’m developing and playing my game and my role and I’m getting better every single game — that’s what I care about.”

It’s difficult to envision a contending team offering Kuzma a larger role on offense than he has with the Wizards. Indeed, Washington coach Wes Unseld Jr. has given Kuzma significant freedom as a scorer, a playmaker and a crunchtime shot-maker. His usage rate is the highest of his career, according to both Basketball-Reference and the advanced analytics database Cleaning the Glass.

One risk to the Wizards, of course, is that once Kuzma reaches unrestricted free agency, he could sign elsewhere without the Wizards receiving any players and/or draft picks in return.

League sources told us the Wizards have shown no willingness to entertain trade offers for Kuzma. The six teams with projected significant 2023 cap space this summer — Detroit, Houston, Indiana, Oklahoma City, Orlando and San Antonio — don’t project to be contenders next season (though if any one of them gets the first pick in the 2023 draft, and takes Victor Wembanyama, they’d suddenly be much more intriguing).

“I think they’re playing it pretty smart just from the standpoint of the guy is such a valuable guy,” one rival team official said. “They’d have his Bird rights, and those are valuable, especially to a team that may not have cap space. If a team that doesn’t have cap space is trying to acquire him, that’s why they’re trying to acquire him.

“So it’s not just this expiring contract, or this potentially expiring contract, it’s how good the guy is coupled with the fact that the team that then acquires him can then control him (to a certain extent through holding his Bird rights).”

League sources view part of Washington’s rationale for the Hachimura trade as clearing a financial pathway to allow the team to re-sign Kuzma without going into the luxury tax for the 2023-24 season. The John Collins extension the Hawks gave their now 25-year-old forward in 2021 — five years, $125 million — provides possible parameters for a potential Kuzma re-signing with the Wizards.

“I think they will end up using Collins as a baseline whether it’s fair or not,” another team executive said.

Bradley Beal
It’s well-documented that Beal has a no-trade clause in the five-year, $251 million contract he signed last summer.

The Wizards have no interest in trading Beal, and even if the team ever wants to move its 29-year-old starting shooting guard, the no-trade clause would limit the potential destinations to only the franchises Beal would want to join.

But it would be a mistake to assume that Beal will never be traded. In theory, there’s nothing to stop Beal from asking team officials for a trade at any point during his current contract, especially if he perceives the front office hasn’t done enough to upgrade the roster around him. The jury is still out on what Beal thinks of Kuzma and/or Porziņģis long term, but the pressure is always on the Wizards to add wherever and whenever possible — which makes another deal before Thursday’s deadline, even if along the margins, possible.

Deni Avdija
Best known for his defensive versatility, Avdija, the ninth overall pick in 2020, tends to be perceived by other teams as having the most two-way upside of any of Washington’s young players.

Even though he’s in his third NBA season, he turned just 22 years old last month.

Still, league sources don’t regard the combo forward as having significant trade value at this time.

“I think it’s very limited because he’s still a highly speculative player,” one source from another team said.

Kristaps Porziņģis
The 27-year-old center has enjoyed a strong bounce-back season, especially in terms of largely avoiding the injuries that typified his first seven years in the league. He’s appeared in 44 of Washington’s 52 games. He also ranks second on the team in scoring, averaging 22.5 points per game, and has exceeded initial expectations defensively.

Porziņģis has a $36.0 million player option for next season, and he recently told The Athletic he hasn’t decided on whether he’ll exercise that option.

Still, our league sources are skeptical that Porziņģis would command much on the trade market at this time. But if he exercises his player option after this season, that expiring contract could be valuable as a trade chip for Washington to engage with teams that would be looking to divest players with large, long-term salaries.


Conjuring a star
It’s no secret that Washington would welcome adding an All-Star-caliber player to the mix, but the league sources we spoke to regard Washington’s chances of doing so as low.

A large part of the reason for that skepticism stems from the Stepien rule, which prevents a team from trading its own first-round picks for two consecutive years.

In Washington’s 2020 deal to unload John Wall’s massive contract, Washington had to pair a protected first-round pick with Wall to Houston for Russell Westbrook.

That pick, which has since been rerouted through subsequent trades and now is owed to the New York Knicks, has various protections: top-14 protected for this year’s draft, top 12 in 2024, top 10 in 2025 and top eight in 2026.

Because the pick might be conveyed as late as 2026, the earliest Washington can trade any first-round pick is 2028 (unless the Knicks would agree to eliminate the protections). Also, Washington is not owed a first-round pick by any team.

Without immediate first-round picks to offer, league sources view it as difficult for Washington to amass enough attractive pieces to acquire a high-level player through a trade. One league source, however, said the Wizards were among the teams he most expected to be active before Thursday’s deadline — not for a star player per se but to add to their depth with a smaller deal.

Monté Morris
Morris, a solid point guard and a good 3-point shooter who will turn 28 in June, could entice teams that need help at that position. For instance, the LA Clippers would like to add a veteran point guard, as our colleague Law Murray noted several days ago.

A Clippers scout attended the Wizards-Portland Trail Blazers game in Washington on Friday even though the Clippers have completed their season series against the Wizards and don’t have another game against the Trail Blazers until March 19.

Morris is on a team-friendly contract with salaries of $9.1 million for this season and $9.8 million for next season. The Wizards do have depth at point guard with defensive ace Delon Wright, Nunn and Jordan Goodwin.

Will Barton
Barton, a 32-year-old wing, has fallen out of the Wizards’ rotation and is in the final year of a contract that is paying him $14.4 million this season.

The Wizards would have to decide if taking on money beyond this season by using Barton’s expiring contract in a trade would be worth it. (For what it’s worth, the 2022-23 salaries of the Clippers’ Luke Kennard and the San Antonio Spurs’ Doug McDermott are among the players whose numbers are almost perfect matches with Barton’s.)

But given Washington’s hopes of bringing both Kuzma and Porziņģis back next season, combined with Ted Leonsis’ history of paying the luxury tax — only once since he became the team’s principal governor, in 2010 — it’s hard to see the Wizards going that route.

If Barton is not dealt before the deadline, he would be a natural candidate for a buyout.

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Trade him ASAP

[NatP4]

Called for that Morris to LAC trade over and over. They really need Morris, it’s a great fit. We should target Jason Preston. He’s been ELITE in 1000 g league minutes. 18-7-6 per36 with only 2 turnovers. Consistently been well above 60% TS all year. Looks like a star in the making.

The obvious deal would be Preston+Batum for Morris+Todd

[nate33]

This would be terrible. Trading all of our future 1st rounders for a 34+ fading, oft-injured, easily disgruntled player? I'd much rather trade KP to get back a first rounder or more, and hope to get lucky in the draft. Even with KD, the Wiz would not have enough to win now.

My thinking is that our current trajectory of straddling the fence between win-now and preserving future pick equity is getting us exactly nowhere. If we sacrifice our 2024, 26 and 28 picks for Durant, we will have a Beal/Durant/Porzingis trio for the next 4 years. That may not be enough for a championship, but it certainly has 50-win potential and a puncher's chance at a title if they can manage to all be healthy in a playoff run. Sure, by 2027-28, it will all fall apart, and then we will have to tank and rebuild, but as long as we preserve our 2029 picks and beyond, our rebuild won't be significantly hampered. (Ideally, we put significant protection on that 2028 pick so we don't end up trading away a high lotto pick in our first tank year.)

[FAH1223]

This would be terrible. Trading all of our future 1st rounders for a 34+ fading, oft-injured, easily disgruntled player? I'd much rather trade KP to get back a first rounder or more, and hope to get lucky in the draft. Even with KD, the Wiz would not have enough to win now.

My thinking is that our current trajectory of straddling the fence between win-now and preserving future pick equity is getting us exactly nowhere. If we sacrifice our 2024, 26 and 28 picks for Durant, we will have a Beal/Durant/Porzingis trio for the next 4 years. That may not be enough for a championship, but it certainly has 50-win potential and a puncher's chance at a title if they can manage to all be healthy in a playoff run. Sure, by 2027-28, it will all fall apart, and then we will have to tank and rebuild, but as long as we preserve our 2029 picks and beyond, our rebuild won't be significantly hampered. (Ideally, we put significant protection on that 2028 pick so we don't end up trading away a high lotto pick in our first tank year.)

This is what Tommy said to David Aldridge and Josh Robbins in The Athletic article above:

“Make no mistake,” Sheppard said, ”we are a team definitely in construction mode as we keep growing, but the goal is still to make the playoffs. We’re not trying to get worse. … Every player in that locker room, they believe we’re going to get better. When we get healthy and we can stay healthy, we can go on a run. I’m not going to take that away from them.”

[nate33]

Called for that Morris to LAC trade over and over. They really need Morris, it’s a great fit. We should target Jason Preston. He’s been ELITE in 1000 g league minutes. 18-7-6 per36 with only 2 turnovers. Consistently been well above 60% TS all year. Looks like a star in the making.

The obvious deal would be Preston+Batum for Morris+Todd

Those are solid numbers over 386 total minutes of G-League play, but his 118 minutes in the NBA haven't gone as well. He posted a TS% of .477 in mostly garbage time. And he is already 23 years old.

[NatP4]

Called for that Morris to LAC trade over and over. They really need Morris, it’s a great fit. We should target Jason Preston. He’s been ELITE in 1000 g league minutes. 18-7-6 per36 with only 2 turnovers. Consistently been well above 60% TS all year. Looks like a star in the making.

The obvious deal would be Preston+Batum for Morris+Todd

Those are solid numbers over 386 total minutes of G-League play, but his 118 minutes in the NBA haven't gone as well. He posted a TS% of .477 in mostly garbage time. And he is already 23 years old.

521+387=908 g league minutes vs a grand total of 118 NBA minutes..

[nate33]

Called for that Morris to LAC trade over and over. They really need Morris, it’s a great fit. We should target Jason Preston. He’s been ELITE in 1000 g league minutes. 18-7-6 per36 with only 2 turnovers. Consistently been well above 60% TS all year. Looks like a star in the making.

The obvious deal would be Preston+Batum for Morris+Todd

Those are solid numbers over 386 total minutes of G-League play, but his 118 minutes in the NBA haven't gone as well. He posted a TS% of .477 in mostly garbage time. And he is already 23 years old.

521+387=908 g league minutes vs a grand total of 118 NBA minutes..

I just get nervous when a guy is 23 and hasn't yet earned any NBA minutes. The guy is getting ready to enter his 3rd season, which is a team option year. Will the Clippers even retain him this summer?

I'm not saying he isn't worth a flyer. I don't really have any idea. But he very well might be available as a camp invite next summer. Do we really want to sacrifice actual trade assets for him? The bottom line is I think we do a lot better with an asset like Morris.

[gambitx777]

Fun fact about the Morris to clippers thing. They don't have to salary match. They have a 9.7 mill trade exception that's expires this week. So we could trade him to LA and they could ship anything back they wanted. It be a good chance for us to get room under the tax to bring up guys like Goodwin and Jackson.

We could send them Morris.
What do we get back?
They have plenty of seconds so maybe those? I can't see Tommy just trading him for seconds.

John wall? I would do that trade. Save three million bucks and we Bassically end up effectively getting all the stuff we got out of the wall trade for free cuz he's back at 6 mill and not 40. But could we do that wall seemed critical of the wizards but didn't out right smoke up in that interview. Idk.

Coffey? Naw. Meh he's 25 and on a solid deal but he look like he had something last year but fell off a cliff and the first two years he didn't look great .

They won't give us mann.

That leaves Boston Jr and Preston. Both have been great in the g league.

An interesting thing here is we can generate a 9.1 mill TPE here if we play it right.

If we absorb either Coffey or one of or both of Boston Jr or Preston into our tpe from holiday that expires in a few days. we generate a new one for 9 mill they get a small one and we get a cheaper player and maybe a second. I would personally stay away from Preston. Boston JR would be the guy I look at or Coffey. Honestly, if they wanted to toss a bunch of seconds at us and we get a big over mid level TPE. I might just take that and bring up Goodwin. Then run PG by committee. But idk just floating stuff out there.

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[payitforward]

This would be terrible. Trading all of our future 1st rounders for a 34+ fading, oft-injured, easily disgruntled player? I'd much rather trade KP to get back a first rounder or more, and hope to get lucky in the draft. Even with KD, the Wiz would not have enough to win now.

Totally agree!

Trade KP for a R1 pick (if we can get one -- seems kind of clear to me that this board overvalues Porzingis) or for a very young player w/ upside.

Trade Kuz for a R1 pick (if we can get one -- I'm not sure Kuz is as highly regarded as people seem to think) or for a very young player w/ upside.

Trade Wright for a 2025 R1 pick (to a contender smart enough to see what his defensive pressure will mean in the playoffs).

Trade Barton, Nunn, Todd, & Davis for a R2 pick in 2037. If you can. Ok forget that idea. Get something for Barton &/or Nunn if possible.

Sign Goodwin to a standard contract. Sign Jackson & Maker to 2-way contracts
Depending on who we got in the trades, bring in 2-3 vet minimum contracts to close out the season.

[AFM]

All trades for picks are a complete non-starter as long as Tommy/his scouting department is calling the shots.

[Frichuela]

All trades for picks are a complete non-starter as long as Tommy/his scouting department is calling the shots.

Tommy has to go for this franchise to have some hope...until then we shall be stuck in the wheel of mediocrity.

[keynote]

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This is where Play-in Tommy excels. Let's see if he can swoop in and get a little deal on the margin. Barton for a second, or whatever.

[AFM]

Tommy time to cook my guy lets GOOOOOOOO