The Wizards’ 2016 offseason, which included huge new deals for Bradley Beal and Ian Mahinmi, received mixed reviews. However, while Mahinmi battled injuries and didn’t have the impact Washington had hoped, Beal delivered on his contract extension with a career year, and new head coach Scott Brooks turned out to be the Wizards’ most important offseason addition.
After coming within one game of the Eastern Conference Finals, the Wizards will now have to decide whether to follow up Beal’s deal with a similarly lucrative extension for Otto Porter. The club’s lack of cap flexibility will make it tricky to acquire additional reinforcements whether or not Porter returns.
Here’s where things currently stand for the Wizards financially, as we continue our Offseason Salary Cap Digest series for 2017:
Guaranteed Salary
- Bradley Beal ($23,775,506)
- John Wall ($18,063,850)
- Ian Mahinmi ($16,661,641)
- Marcin Gortat ($12,782,609)
- Markieff Morris ($8,000,000)
- Jason Smith ($5,225,000)
- Tomas Satoransky ($3,000,000)
- Kelly Oubre Jr. ($2,093,040)
- Chris McCullough ($1,471,382)
- Martell Webster ($833,333) — Waived via stretch provision
- Total: $91,906,361
Player Options
- None
Team Options
- None
Non-Guaranteed Salary
- Sheldon Mac ($1,312,611)1
- Daniel Ochefu ($1,312,611)2
- Total: $2,625,222
Restricted Free Agents
- Otto Porter ($7,732,904 qualifying offer / $14,734,953 cap hold)
- Bojan Bogdanovic ($4,663,316 qualifying offer / $7,088,241 cap hold)
- Trey Burke ($4,187,598 qualifying offer / $8,466,495 cap hold)
- Total: $30,289,689
Cap Holds
- Brandon Jennings ($1,440,000)
- Total: $1,440,000
Trade Exceptions
- Andrew Nicholson TPE ($2,515,973) — Expires 2/22/18
Projected Salary Cap: $101,000,000
Maximum Cap Room: $6,646,794
- Renouncing all their free agents and waiving their non-guaranteed salaries would leave the Wizards with nine guaranteed contracts and three cap charges for empty roster slots, totaling $94,353,206. That doesn’t leave the Wizards much room to work with, so it makes more sense for the team to stay over the cap, which would allow for possible deals with RFAs like Porter and/or Bogdanovic.
Footnotes:
- Mac’s salary becomes partially guaranteed ($50,000) after July 1.
- Ochefu’s salary becomes partially guaranteed ($50,000) after July 1.
Salary information from Basketball Insiders and The Vertical was used in the creation of this post.
If they ship out Gortat they might be able to grab a better option if Porter and Bogdanovic wait to sign.