Trae Young, Come on DOWN

[payitforward]

Plus Trae is much earlier in his career than Brad was when we traded him. Nor did we trade for him out of a foolish belief -- as Phx did in Beal's case -- that he was going to help lead us to the promised land.

[nate33]

The more I think about it, the more I understand why they did this. I think one underrated aspect of this trade is how hard it would have been to get up to the minimum salary threshold of 90% of the cap. If you don't reach the cap floor, they fine you the difference in your team salary and the minimum salary threshold, while ALSO excluding you from the luxtax distribution.

Prior to this trade, our projected payroll next year was just $66M plus our draft picks. Add $10M for the #3 pick and $3M for our #30 pick and it's up to $79M for a roster of 12 guys (Kispert, Sarr, Bilal, Tre, Cam, Bub, Riley, AJ, Kyshawn, Champagnie, #3, #30). Let's say we combined all of our late SRP's into one higher SRP and added a 13th guy on a vet minimum, so that's 13 guys for $81M.

The minimum salary threshold is $149.4M

We would have needed to acquire at least $68M in salary, but we would have only 2 roster spots to do it. (Though I suppose we could cut somebody like AJ.) It would have been genuinely hard to spend that money while also maintaining flexibility going forward. We could have thrown a max contract at somebody like Duren, but that probably would have been matched. Then what? Sign somebody like Mitchell Robinson and Quentin Grimes, sure. But that's probably only $40M combined and now we're out of roster spots. There's still $28M to go.

By doing this Trae Young thing, we resolve the problem in the short term. Our salary total of guys under contract is roughly $115M (counting draft picks). We will only need to spend $34M more to get to the minimum, which means we can still go sign a cost-effective free agent or two without going out of our way to waste money. And then, in 2027, Trae comes off the books and maybe there's a better free agency market to use our cap room.

[Kanyewest]

Yeah, I'm fine with the trade relatively now compared to before especially if the Wizards can tank and I underestimated how much cap room they had before. Still would have been nice to get a pick but at least they were able to offload Kispert's salary.

[gesa2]

You have to factor in the opportunity cost of diminishing our ability to do BOYD trades with that cap space, but there aren’t that many bad contracts in the league right now. I doubt we could have used all 80 million for that.

[nate33]

Yeah, I'm fine with the trade relatively now compared to before especially if the Wizards can tank and I underestimated how much cap room they had before. Still would have been nice to get a pick but at least they were able to offload Kispert's salary.

Good point about Kispert's salary. In a way, we are taking on more salary next year in exchange for further reducing our payroll in Summer 2027. With Kispert off the books, and assuming Trae is not extended or resigned, we only have a payroll of $49.7M for 7 guys (Sarr, Bub, Kyshawn, AJ, Tre, Riley, Champagnie). Add in two 2026 FRP's and a 2027 FRP and it's probably a payroll of about $75M. Resign Bilal to $15M and it's $90M. Assume we added a quality jumbo big at some point and it's $110M. That would leave $65M in cap room for hopefully a team that is turning the corner and on the way to respectability.

For argument's sake, let's say the rotation is:
PG Peterson/Bub
SG Tre/2027 FRP
SF Bilal/Riley
PF Kyshawn/Champagnie
C Sarr/Hartenstein

And the payroll is just $110M? A legit superstar might be interested in joining that team. Or we could trade future picks to acquire one.

[nate33]

You have to factor in the opportunity cost of diminishing our ability to do BOYD trades with that cap space, but there aren’t that many bad contracts in the league right now. I doubt we could have used all 80 million for that.

Right. There aren't many. There are still a few, and we will have the cap room to capitalize on them if necessary.

[Frichuela]

The more I think about it, the more I understand why they did this. I think one underrated aspect of this trade is how hard it would have been to get up to the minimum salary threshold of 90% of the cap. If you don't reach the cap floor, they fine you the difference in your team salary and the minimum salary threshold, while ALSO excluding you from the luxtax distribution.

Prior to this trade, our projected payroll next year was just $66M plus our draft picks. Add $10M for the #3 pick and $3M for our #30 pick and it's up to $79M for a roster of 12 guys (Kispert, Sarr, Bilal, Tre, Cam, Bub, Riley, AJ, Kyshawn, Champagnie, #3, #30). Let's say we combined all of our late SRP's into one higher SRP and added a 13th guy on a vet minimum, so that's 13 guys for $81M.

The minimum salary threshold is $149.4M

We would have needed to acquire at least $68M in salary, but we would have only 2 roster spots to do it. (Though I suppose we could cut somebody like AJ.) It would have been genuinely hard to spend that money while also maintaining flexibility going forward. We could have thrown a max contract at somebody like Duren, but that probably would have been matched. Then what? Sign somebody like Mitchell Robinson and Quentin Grimes, sure. But that's probably only $40M combined and now we're out of roster spots. There's still $28M to go.

By doing this Trae Young thing, we resolve the problem in the short term. Our salary total of guys under contract is roughly $115M (counting draft picks). We will only need to spend $34M more to get to the minimum, which means we can still go sign a cost-effective free agent or two without going out of our way to waste money. And then, in 2027, Trae comes off the books and maybe there's a better free agency market to use our cap room.

Great points Nate. The salary floor issue is something important. Trading for Trae makes the situation more manageable financially.

[doclinkin]

The more I think about it, the more I understand why they did this. I think one underrated aspect of this trade is how hard it would have been to get up to the minimum salary threshold of 90% of the cap. If you don't reach the cap floor, they fine you the difference in your team salary and the minimum salary threshold, while ALSO excluding you from the luxtax distribution.

What I've been saying from the jump.

As of next year our 2nd highest salary after Trae would be our rookie top lotto pick.

None of the young pups extensions will be on the cap yet. We would be forced to buy whichever big ticket free agent is willing to land here. Maybe Trae makes it look like fun to play here, Players do respect his offensive game and swagger, so maybe after next year we are poised to become a destination, but until we are we don't get the pick of the free agent pool while we are still integrating young talent. We'd be forced to overbid.

With the Bring out Your Dead trades, we can rehab and recycle end-contract former stars. This is the rare case where the only asset we landed is a former All-star in the bang and dent pile. But I have no doubt we can make him look good when he is both healthy and free to push the pace, play with tempo, and look like a mentor to young enthusiastic core. In this same way we rehabbed Poole's value and made him look like a mentor to the youth, so that he looked less like a knucklehead and more like an asset to the team.

In my head I'm looking at the team we would have if we slip to 3-4 and added Caleb or Cam Boozer. With the length around the perimeter and an elite help defender like Alex "Starr" we'd be poised to be one of the rare teams that could actually play behind Trae on defense and make him look passable at that end. All we need is a monster rebounder/positional defender on the backline. Teams will switch to burn him, but the action to force the switch allows a positional defender like Boozer to anticipate it and seal the lanes, or our long hyper athletes to swoop in and erase mistakes. In my head I see a Trae + Caleb pick and roll and we become Lob City East. Or a Boozer + Caleb two man game, where the pick erases the opposition defense and opponents collapse the lane to help, leaving our 40% 3pt shooters wide open (Key, Bub, TJ3, even Sarr drawing the opponent Bigs outside).

It's not a championship build, but would sizzle on offense and help develop name recognition among fans, front offices, and most importantly referees. HIghlight reel stuff with waves of young active players frustrating opponents.

Frankly I think Trae would put a whitehot spotlight on Whitmore's game in a way we haven't yet been able to see. That's a potential nightly highlight reel.

But yes. Until we look like fun to join, we are going to have to overpay for 2nd tier talent if we are trying to fill the cap by buying talent. Otherwise we keep up a veterinary hospital for orphan all-stars for a year or two more while our rookie deals mature.

[doclinkin]

And Trae+Dybantsa would be the supercharged version of Trae + Whitmore.

Peterson? Understudy to take the role from him. Likewise any of the smaller point guards we could land if we fell to 5-8. IN that case Trae hopefully pops on highlight films on re-built legs, and we ship him late season to a contender that needs cap relief.

[AFM]

Watch on YouTube

[gambitx777]

The more I think about it, the more I understand why they did this. I think one underrated aspect of this trade is how hard it would have been to get up to the minimum salary threshold of 90% of the cap. If you don't reach the cap floor, they fine you the difference in your team salary and the minimum salary threshold, while ALSO excluding you from the luxtax distribution.

Prior to this trade, our projected payroll next year was just $66M plus our draft picks. Add $10M for the #3 pick and $3M for our #30 pick and it's up to $79M for a roster of 12 guys (Kispert, Sarr, Bilal, Tre, Cam, Bub, Riley, AJ, Kyshawn, Champagnie, #3, #30). Let's say we combined all of our late SRP's into one higher SRP and added a 13th guy on a vet minimum, so that's 13 guys for $81M.

The minimum salary threshold is $149.4M

We would have needed to acquire at least $68M in salary, but we would have only 2 roster spots to do it. (Though I suppose we could cut somebody like AJ.) It would have been genuinely hard to spend that money while also maintaining flexibility going forward. We could have thrown a max contract at somebody like Duren, but that probably would have been matched. Then what? Sign somebody like Mitchell Robinson and Quentin Grimes, sure. But that's probably only $40M combined and now we're out of roster spots. There's still $28M to go.

By doing this Trae Young thing, we resolve the problem in the short term. Our salary total of guys under contract is roughly $115M (counting draft picks). We will only need to spend $34M more to get to the minimum, which means we can still go sign a cost-effective free agent or two without going out of our way to waste money. And then, in 2027, Trae comes off the books and maybe there's a better free agency market to use our cap room.

Bagley one year 50 and a 30 million thank you to gil for being the team mascot

Sent from my SM-S926U1 using RealGM mobile app

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

The more I think about it, the more I understand why they did this. I think one underrated aspect of this trade is how hard it would have been to get up to the minimum salary threshold of 90% of the cap. If you don't reach the cap floor, they fine you the difference in your team salary and the minimum salary threshold, while ALSO excluding you from the luxtax distribution.

What I've been saying from the jump.

As of next year our 2nd highest salary after Trae would be our rookie top lotto pick.

None of the young pups extensions will be on the cap yet. We would be forced to buy whichever big ticket free agent is willing to land here. Maybe Trae makes it look like fun to play here, Players do respect his offensive game and swagger, so maybe after next year we are poised to become a destination, but until we are we don't get the pick of the free agent pool while we are still integrating young talent. We'd be forced to overbid.

With the Bring out Your Dead trades, we can rehab and recycle end-contract former stars. This is the rare case where the only asset we landed is a former All-star in the bang and dent pile. But I have no doubt we can make him look good when he is both healthy and free to push the pace, play with tempo, and look like a mentor to young enthusiastic core. In this same way we rehabbed Poole's value and made him look like a mentor to the youth, so that he looked less like a knucklehead and more like an asset to the team.

In my head I'm looking at the team we would have if we slip to 3-4 and added Caleb or Cam Boozer. With the length around the perimeter and an elite help defender like Alex "Starr" we'd be poised to be one of the rare teams that could actually play behind Trae on defense and make him look passable at that end. All we need is a monster rebounder/positional defender on the backline. Teams will switch to burn him, but the action to force the switch allows a positional defender like Boozer to anticipate it and seal the lanes, or our long hyper athletes to swoop in and erase mistakes. In my head I see a Trae + Caleb pick and roll and we become Lob City East. Or a Boozer + Caleb two man game, where the pick erases the opposition defense and opponents collapse the lane to help, leaving our 40% 3pt shooters wide open (Key, Bub, TJ3, even Sarr drawing the opponent Bigs outside).

It's not a championship build, but would sizzle on offense and help develop name recognition among fans, front offices, and most importantly referees. HIghlight reel stuff with waves of young active players frustrating opponents.

Frankly I think Trae would put a whitehot spotlight on Whitmore's game in a way we haven't yet been able to see. That's a potential nightly highlight reel.

But yes. Until we look like fun to join, we are going to have to overpay for 2nd tier talent if we are trying to fill the cap by buying talent. Otherwise we keep up a veterinary hospital for orphan all-stars for a year or two more while our rookie deals mature.

Boozer + Alex two man game?

[MOSH]

The more I think about it, the more I understand why they did this. I think one underrated aspect of this trade is how hard it would have been to get up to the minimum salary threshold of 90% of the cap. If you don't reach the cap floor, they fine you the difference in your team salary and the minimum salary threshold, while ALSO excluding you from the luxtax distribution.

Prior to this trade, our projected payroll next year was just $66M plus our draft picks. Add $10M for the #3 pick and $3M for our #30 pick and it's up to $79M for a roster of 12 guys (Kispert, Sarr, Bilal, Tre, Cam, Bub, Riley, AJ, Kyshawn, Champagnie, #3, #30). Let's say we combined all of our late SRP's into one higher SRP and added a 13th guy on a vet minimum, so that's 13 guys for $81M.

The minimum salary threshold is $149.4M

We would have needed to acquire at least $68M in salary, but we would have only 2 roster spots to do it. (Though I suppose we could cut somebody like AJ.) It would have been genuinely hard to spend that money while also maintaining flexibility going forward. We could have thrown a max contract at somebody like Duren, but that probably would have been matched. Then what? Sign somebody like Mitchell Robinson and Quentin Grimes, sure. But that's probably only $40M combined and now we're out of roster spots. There's still $28M to go.

By doing this Trae Young thing, we resolve the problem in the short term. Our salary total of guys under contract is roughly $115M (counting draft picks). We will only need to spend $34M more to get to the minimum, which means we can still go sign a cost-effective free agent or two without going out of our way to waste money. And then, in 2027, Trae comes off the books and maybe there's a better free agency market to use our cap room.

It kinda sad to reach this point of trading for a salary dump.

Is Trae going to help the Wizards? I highly doubt that. He can't play defense and he is a ball hog.
He's also very small.

I also don't understand this deal for Bub, this won't help developing him, unless the FO already gave up on him, which seems likely since it's already happened with Deni in the past.

Can you get more wins? I'm not sure.
Good luck!

P.S : No draft capital is pretty great, but it mostly shows how Trae's value has plummeted

[AFM]

Read on Twitter

[LyricalRico]

Bagley one year 50 and a 30 million thank you to gil for being the team mascot

[lastemp3ror]

It seems like most people on this board seem to think that the Wizards will trade Young within the next year. Although that is a possibility, I think it is more likely that they re-sign him. I find it hard to believe that Young would want to come here without some sort of under-the-table handshake on an extension. I would say there is about a 75% chance they will resign him, although I would rather them not.

[payitforward]

Read on Twitter

Really makes Trae seem like a good guy. I like it.

[nate33]

Read on Twitter

Really makes Trae seem like a good guy. I like it.

A cynic might also think that Trae wanted to be traded to a team that might actually want to work out a long term extension this summer because he knew full well that Atlanta didn't. If he stayed in Atlanta, they weren't going to extend him. He would have been forced to opt in on his player option, which would let the league know that he is unwanted by Atlanta. That would have put him in terrible position in Summer 2027 as a free agent.

[tontoz]

It seems like most people on this board seem to think that the Wizards will trade Young within the next year. Although that is a possibility, I think it is more likely that they re-sign him. I find it hard to believe that Young would want to come here without some sort of under-the-table handshake on an extension. I would say there is about a 75% chance they will resign him, although I would rather them not.

Trae doesn't have a no trade clause. He had no say on where they traded him.

The narrative that he wanted to come here is a joke. When did that story come out? Was if the day of the trade or the day before?

A few days before that the rumor came out that he wanted to go to the Nets or Wolves but they weren't interested.

[payitforward]

Read on Twitter

Really makes Trae seem like a good guy. I like it.

A cynic might also think that Trae wanted to be traded to a team that might actually want to work out a long term extension this summer because he knew full well that Atlanta didn't. If he stayed in Atlanta, they weren't going to extend him. He would have been forced to opt in on his player option, which would let the league know that he is unwanted by Atlanta. That would have put him in terrible position in Summer 2027 as a free agent.

Sure.... So... a good guy & a smart guy too!