July 9: The trade is official, according to announcements from the Spurs and Wizards (Twitter link).
July 8: The Wizards and Spurs have agreed to a trade that will send big man Kelly Olynyk to San Antonio, sources tell Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link).
According to Charania, in return for Olynyk, Washington will acquire former first-rounders Malaki Branham and Blake Wesley, along with a 2026 second-round pick. That pick will be the last favorable of Dallas’, Philadelphia’s, and Oklahoma City’s second-rounders.
Olynyk, 34, spent last season with the Raptors and Pelicans. He was limited to 44 games (22 starts) for health reasons, but was solid when he played, averaging 8.7 points, 4.7 rebounds, and 2.9 assists in 20.3 minutes per game, with a strong shooting line of .500/.418/.769.
A forward/center who can stretch the floor (.371 career 3PT%), Olynyk will become part of a Spurs frontcourt led by Victor Wembanyama. San Antonio will also be incorporating another new center, Luke Kornet, who finalized a four-year, $40.7MM deal with the team earlier this week.
Olynyk was just traded two days ago from New Orleans to Washington in the three-team deal that included CJ McCollum and Jordan Poole, but he clearly wasn’t part of the Wizards’ long-term plans. He can be flipped immediately because his salary isn’t being aggregated with another player’s salary as part of this trade.
Branham and Wesley – who were drafted 20th and 25th, respectively, in 2022 – didn’t establish themselves as reliable rotation players during their three years in San Antonio, as their playing time declined each season. Still, they’re both just 22 years old, and Branham has shown some promise as a shooter (.405 3PT% last season), while Wesley has shown he’s a stout on-ball defender.
It’s unclear whether the duo will get a shot to make the team and earn rotation spots in Washington or whether the Wizards made the deal primarily for the second-round pick and the cap savings.
Olynyk is on an expiring $13.45MM contract in 2025/26, while Branham ($4.96MM) and Wesley ($4.72MM) will earn less than $10MM total in the final year of their rookie deals. By taking Branham and Wesley into an existing trade exception, Washington will also be able to create a trade exception worth Olynyk’s $13.45MM salary.
The Wizards have a growing roster crunch they’ll have to address at some point in the coming weeks or months. As a result of this trade, they’ll have 15 players on guaranteed salaries, and that total doesn’t include Richaun Holmes (small partial guarantee), Justin Champagnie (non-guaranteed), or Anthony Gill, who is considered a strong candidate to re-sign with the club.
The Spurs, conversely, will have just 12 players under contract once the trade is official and will have plenty of flexibility below the luxury tax line to fill out the three openings on the standard 15-man roster.
W for Olynyk. Nobody wants to be stuck on these trash teams….
Spurs bringing in vets. I guess they are serious about their young guys.
I really thought they would go after Giannis.
Nice veteran pickup. That said, if there isn’t a bigger follow up move lined up, him and Kornet don’t exactly make the Spurs a playoff contender.
The Spurs drafted Dylan Harper, they are not aiming for the playoffs right now
Well, if he’s backing up Fox, then they’re aiming for the playoffs along with planning for the future.
Getting Fox meant aiming for Playoffs. Remember Wemby didn’t play after Fox trade. Spurs will be a playoff team this year.
By that logic, the Mavs drafted Cooper Flagg, so they’re not aiming for the playoffs either…
How? The Spurs drafted point guards back to back and traded for a point guard. They have 3 “starting” point guards. If the Spurs were really about winning right now they would have traded the pick.
Also, Flagg is 10000x better than Harper at this point in time.
Lousy take consideration to the fact that Flagg is tier 1aaaaa Harper not even close.
That makes 0 sense at all!
They already are.
Another solid addition. Good off-season so far.
Spurs now have 3 big men that can all shot in Vic, Kelly and Kornet. The paint will be really open for Fox, Harper and Castle to drive into and finish at the rim or kick outside.
This team seems like it needs a couple better forwards than Barnes, Johnson and Sochan.
No real big name forwards on the market unless you believe the LeBron talk.
A sign and trade for Kuminga would be really interesting. He’s really young and athletic and has the potential to be a solid defender.
PJ Washington would again be a nice addition maybe swap for Keldon Johnson and a couple seconds or something.
Otherwise Jerami Grant as a last resort could be a solid addition. The contract sucks but maybe you eat that and deal with it later in order to really try have a run at the title this year
Kornet rarely shoots.
Kornet didn’t shoot in Boston. He was shooting early into his career, but not lately. IDK if he still has it in him.
Kornet stopped shooting before he got to Boston.
When Kornet first got to Boston, he was still shooting threes. in 20-21He shot 2 a game in 14MPG He stopped shooting threes after Boston waived him. When he came back, he wasn’t shooting them anymore.
You’re correct I forgot he was there in 21 and was waived.
Even still 2 shots a game at 25% you can understand why he stopped and focused on making winning plays.
This Kornet is better than the other Kornet.
Agreed. He also bulked up. He was skinny AF back then.
Definitely gonna miss seeing him in green
@peter They say he still makes them in practice.
What about Vassell? He doesn’t count?
I can appreciate my Wizards doing everything they can to free up opportunity for the young guys to prove they belong. We’re far from being competitive but, OKC kinda proved that you trust the process to work. Wiz have acquired a lot of raw talent. The question is can they develop that talent into a viable championship contending franchise. Jury is still out on that last bit but I’m hopeful after getting out of contracts the likes of Beal and Poole. The front office is trying, time will tell if their efforts were good enough.
Yeah, a pretty good move by the Wiz tbh. Get as much lottery tickets as you can and hope more than one pans out. As you said, we’ll have to see if they hired the right guys to develop all these young guys, and IF they did, then future looks bright.
Also a good move for the Spurs to start surrounding their young guys with better vet talents.
The big question I have is is Keefe the guy to lead a rebuild and try to get the most out of said young talent? I haven’t followed the team too closely as of late so I don’t know what the current consensus is there.
I think this is probably the year that will answer that question, he was stuck with guys like Poole and kuzma while trying to get the rookies and other really young guys in a position to learn and improve. Now it’s essentially open season as you still have quality vets i.e. Middleton, Smart and McCollum that are good team first guys. I imagine one or a couple of them could still be dealt but they seem to be much more agreeable personality wise for the team that poole and especially kuzma.
Solid move
Spurs got their vet!
Spurs surrounding Wembo with guys like Olynyk/Kornet reminds me so much of when my Falcons surrounded Vick with guys like Peerless Price/Finneran/etc.
Wow Thomas, that’s a name I haven’t heard in a while, Peerless Price.
Me too Thomas.
Washington will need to make room. No way they’re waiving Champagnie, he’s valuable. And they are thin at the 5, they kind of need Holmes.
Any feedback on those 2 guys from SA? I’ve always thought that all the players SA drafted in 2020-2023, other than Victor, were underwhelming.
Props to you, btw. You flagged this roster crunch a while ago. Obviously, there are several guys who would not be missed, but of course the Wizards need to dispose of those assets in a way that will derive Max value or cost the least.
Interesting – after a decade of talking about getting 3 & D players the Wizards have gone all in – Other than Alex Sarr and Richaun Holmes everyone is 6’8″ or under I think
Yes, and that is another reason why Holmes won’t be waived. They just need another dude who can play the 5. Don’t want to ruin one of the young guys’ development trying to play center.
I think the Spurs might make another trade. Not necessarily with Olynyk but with their roster openings they and no cap space I can see them moving Barnes, Keldon Johnson or Sochan.
Wemby, Fox, Harper, Castle, Vassell. That’s an interesting 5 right there. Sochan is a solid D guy as is the five above, but they need that one 20pt three point scorer to open the floor.
They need a Klay or Korver type…
A deadly off a pin down 3 point shooter…
Good trade for both teams!! Nice piece of business.
Wesley was the guy they got for Derrick White. That turned out well. Lol
Great pickup for Spurs…
Why couldn’t the Warriors pick up this guy…. seriously
Interesting moves by the Spurs, they’ve still got more to do… But they are a solid playoff team if healthy…
A star wing with a 3 point shot away from being a contender…