An MRI performed this morning on Wizards center Thomas Bryant confirmed that he suffered a torn ACL in his left knee, tweets ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. Thomas was injured during the first quarter of Saturday’s game with Miami and had to be helped off the court by trainers.
Bryant, 23, was averaging a career-best 14.3 PPG, along with 6.1 rebounds and 0.8 blocks through 10 games. He will probably need nine to 12 months to recover and will be heading into a contract year, notes Chase Hughes of NBC Sports (Twitter link). Bryant will make $8,666,667 in 2021/22 and will be a free agent following that season.
Veteran Robin Lopez will probably take over as the starting center, Hughes adds (Twitter link), and the injury creates an opportunity for Moritz Wagner, who was recently removed from the rotation. Wagner has gotten into just four games this season and is averaging 11.5 minutes per night.
Washington will likely apply for a disabled player exception to offset the loss, tweets Bobby Marks of ESPN. It would be valued at roughly $4.2MM, which is half of Bryant’s salary for this season. Marks notes that the Wizards are currently $842K below the luxury tax line and don’t have a roster spot open. The deadline to apply is March 3 and it can be used until April 19.
The DPE can be used to sign a free agent, to claim a player off waivers, or to acquire a player in a trade. However, it can only be used on one player and can only accommodate a player on a one-year deal. A free agent signee can’t get a multiyear contract, and any trade or waiver target must be in the final year of his contract.
Wow everyone’s tearing their ACL this season and this will really hurt Washington
This is a jinxed yr. Never seen a yr start like this. It all started with Klay. I agree this hurts the Wizards. They don’t have a replacement and he was playing good. Wiz will have to sign a C now. This starts going bad for them. With the good young talent they have. They could blow it up trade Beal. And just go for the draft. Great draft to do it for. They could even move Westbrook by TD.
how would they trade westbrook lol..he’s hot ass and has like 40 million left for 2 years
I remember how most people thought the Wizards won the trade when they gave away Wall plus a first round pick for Westbrook.
You remember on cue because it’s a WAS article and you are boring.
I don’t recall a plurality of opinion because Wall had been out with injury and RW was not popular, but you will remember whatever makes you feel bad.
Wizards should tank for picks with two healthy superstars?
I say YES
I agree lol. Forgot they do have Robin Lopez. They can get a lot of picks for those two.
Who are the 2 superstars? Cuz Beal won’t be on the team next year if they spend a season tanking.
Funny how everybody has been for months saying “what a horrible year 2020 is, can’t wait for it to finish”… well I can say that I hope we were in 2020 as so far it has been so much better than 2021!
At least last year we enjoyed 2 & a 1/2 months of normality, meanwhile starting this year from day 1 in lockdown, is gonna be horrible & can’t see getting any better at all!
Well… we will always have 2022, right?
This sucks. I really like his game. Could be a cheaper Harrell for most contending teams. Probably the 4th best player on a title team. Hope the kid is alright and comes back stronger.
maybe its time they satrt considering resigning their old homie, ian mahami lol. avaliable centers to target: dedmon, labrissiere, justin patton, o’quinn, omari spellman
Prob their third best player and they’re already 2-7… Westbrook’s first year is looking like it might be lotto bound