Washington Wizards Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Texas Notes: Porzingis, Popovich, Dragic, Nix

February 16th, 2022 at 5:15pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Mavericks decided to trade Kristaps Porzingis to the Wizards last week because they determined he couldn’t be an effective second star with Luka Doncic, Tim Cato of The Athletic states in a discussion of the deal. Porzingis was in his third season in Dallas, and all three had been disrupted by injuries, leading to concerns about whether he would ever be reliable to stay on the court. The Mavs are 13-9 in the games he has missed this season, so the front office felt it was safe to move on from his contract.

Cato is skeptical about Dallas’ return in the deal, although he says Spencer Dinwiddie will be a welcome addition for a team that has trouble driving to the basket and the Mavericks believe Davis Bertans is a better defender than his reputation would suggest. They plan to use him in larger lineups where his lack of rebounding will be less important.

There’s more NBA news from Texas:

The Spurs are focused on making the play-in tournament and reaching the playoffs, even though their 22-36 record indicates that they might be better off maximizing their first-round draft pick, writes Tom Orsborn of The San Antonio Express News. Dejounte Murray and Devin Vassell both talked last weekend about the importance of getting to the postseason, and coach Gregg Popovich repeated that message on Monday. “If you put yourself in the situation, more as a coach than any other position in the organization, besides players, you can’t go to your team and ask them to lose,” Popovich said. “You can’t do that. It’s an impossibility for all of the logical reasons you can think of on your own. So, you go play your best, you keep teaching, you keep doing what you do. And if you lose and wind up with a high draft pick, well, you accept it and you are glad you got a high draft pick. But it can’t be because you didn’t push them or teach them or demand from them.”
Goran Dragic gave up $819,835 in his buyout agreement with the Spurs, tweets Keith Smith of Spotrac. The amount is equal to a 54-day minimum-salary contract for Dragic, so he’ll make up roughly all that money once he signs with a new team.
The Rockets used part of their mid-level exception to sign rookie guard Daishen Nix to a four-year contract, according to Smith (Twitter link). Nix will make $612K for the rest of this season and $1,563,518 in 2022/23. The final two years of the deal are non-guaranteed at $1,836,096 and $1,988,598, and the last season is also a team option.

Wizards Notes: Player Development, Hachimura, Porzingis

February 15th, 2022 at 7:19am CST by Luke Adams

Whether the Wizards push hard for a play-in spot down the stretch or resign themselves to a lottery berth and vie for draft positioning, developing their young players will be a top priority the rest of the way, writes Chase Hughes of NBC Sports Washington.

As Hughes outlines, if youngsters like Deni Avdija, Rui Hachimura, Corey Kispert, and Daniel Gafford thrive in the second half of the season, that will give the Wizards more options in the offseason — they could decide to build around those players or could try to trade one or more of them for a more established player.

Avdija, who is averaging 7.5 PPG on the season, has looked good as of late, scoring double-digit points in all three games since the trade deadline and grabbing a career-high 15 rebounds in Monday’s win over Detroit. However, Hachimura’s developmental process may have hit another temporary snag during Monday’s victory.

As Hughes writes in a separate NBC Sports Washington story, Hachimura left the game in the first half due to a right ankle sprain. Head coach Wes Unseld Jr. said after the game that he’s hopeful the sprain isn’t too severe, but it still might make sense for Washington to hold out the third-year forward until at least after the All-Star break.

Here’s more on the Wizards:

Unseld said on Monday that there’s hope Kristaps Porzingis will be able to make his Wizards debut before the All-Star break (Twitter link via Hughes). Washington plays in Indiana on Wednesday and Brooklyn on Thursday, so we’ll see if Porzingis – who is day-to-day with a right knee bone bruise – is available for either of those games.
Although general manager Tommy Sheppard insisted a few weeks before the trade deadline that the team felt no need to move Spencer Dinwiddie, it was obvious something was “dramatically off-kilter,” writes Josh Robbins of The Athletic. Dinwiddie, who struggled to produce alongside Bradley Beal, never seemed comfortable with his role on the team, Robbins adds, noting that the point guard was “oddly passive” and probably didn’t have the ball in his hands enough.
Within that same story at The Athletic, Tim Cato considers what Porzingis can bring to the Wizards, suggesting the big man has reemerged as a strong defender when healthy this season and is no longer an obvious target for switches. However, Porzingis hasn’t been a reliable outside shooter in 2021/22, and his frequent injury-related absences resulted in some awkward readjustment periods when he’d return to the lineup after missing several games, says Cato.

NBA Teams With Open Roster Spots

February 14th, 2022 at 1:49pm CST by Luke Adams

Several NBA teams typically end up with newly-opened roster spots following the trade deadline. This happens for a variety of reasons. Some teams make two-for-one or three-for-one trades; some acquire players in cap-related deals and immediately cut them; others buy out or release players they weren’t able to move at the deadline.

Whatever the reason may be, there are plenty of available roster spots around the NBA, and it’s a good bet that most of them will be filled before the end of the regular season. Contending teams will want to fortify their depth for the playoffs, while lottery-bound clubs will take fliers on prospects willing to accept multiyear deals that aren’t fully guaranteed beyond this season.

Here, with the help of our roster counts page, is a look at the teams that have open roster spots as of February 14:

Teams with open 15-man roster spots:

Atlanta Hawks
Boston Celtics (3)
Charlotte Hornets
Denver Nuggets *
Detroit Pistons
Houston Rockets
Miami Heat (2)
Milwaukee Bucks (3) *
Minnesota Timberwolves
New Orleans Pelicans
Orlando Magic
Philadelphia 76ers
Toronto Raptors
Utah Jazz
Washington Wizards

* The Nuggets (DeMarcus Cousins) and Bucks (Greg Monroe) each have a player on a 10-day contract. We’re counting those roster spots as “open” because Cousins’ and Monroe’s deals will expire this week.

If we count the Nuggets, exactly half of the NBA’s 30 teams have at least one 15-man roster spot available. Twelve of those clubs have a single open roster spot, while the Celtics, Heat, and Bucks have multiple openings.

Since teams are only permitted to dip below 14 players on standard contracts for up to two weeks at a time, Boston, Miami, and Milwaukee will all have to get back to that league-mandated minimum before the end of the month.

The other teams on this list aren’t under immediate pressure to add a 15th man, and some may hold off for a little while for financial reasons — or just to wait to see who else becomes available on the buyout market in the next couple weeks.

Some of these clubs – including the Heat with Caleb Martin, the Pelicans with Jose Alvarado, and the Raptors with Justin Champagnie – might use their open roster spot to promote a player on a two-way contract who has earned regular minutes.

Teams with open two-way spots:

Boston Celtics
Dallas Mavericks
Oklahoma City Thunder
Phoenix Suns
Utah Jazz

The Celtics (Sam Hauser) and Thunder (Aaron Wiggins) have each promoted a two-way player to the 15-man roster since the trade deadline. The other three teams on this list released a two-way player in January, creating an opening.

In the past, teams haven’t been able to sign players to two-way contracts after January 15, but that restriction doesn’t exist this season, so I expect we’ll see some – if not all – of these teams fill their open two-way slots sooner or later.

No NBA Players Currently In Health And Safety Protocols

February 14th, 2022 at 10:01am CST by Luke Adams

Wizards center Daniel Gafford won’t be available for Monday’s game against Detroit, but he’s listed as out due to return to competition reconditioning, meaning he has exited the NBA’s health and safety protocols, tweets Chase Hughes of NBC Sports Washington.

That news is notable because Gafford had been the lone player remaining in the league’s COVID-19 protocols after Pelicans big man Willy Hernangomez was cleared last week. Now that Gafford has been cleared too, none of the 30 teams have a single player in the protocols.

It’s a stark contrast to where the league was at just six weeks ago. At the end of December and the start of January, there were well over 100 players in the health and safety protocols. Most teams needed to sign multiple replacements to 10-day contracts to withstand COVID-19 outbreaks, and even then, several games had to be postponed.

Of course, just because there are no players in the protocols right now doesn’t mean there won’t be more players affected going forward. It’s safe to assume individuals will continue to enter the protocols here and there, and there’s no guarantee there won’t be more team-wide outbreaks before the end of the season. But we’re hopeful that the worst of those outbreaks are behind us for the 2021/22 campaign.

We set up a tracker in December to keep tabs on which players were entering and exiting the health and safety protocols, and we’ve updated it daily since then. However, we’re putting that tracker on ice for now and will only resume updating it if the number of players affected starts climbing rapidly again at some point in the coming days, weeks, or months.

Wizards Notes: Bertans, Sheppard, Porzingis, Draft Pick

February 13th, 2022 at 11:01am CST by Arthur Hill

Davis Bertans, who was traded to the Mavericks this week along with Spencer Dinwiddie, offered some insight into the dysfunctional situation he left behind with the Wizards, writes Jack Maloney of CBS Sports. During his introductory news conference Saturday in Dallas, Bertans described an atmosphere where each player seemed to have his own agenda.

“It’s tough to have team chemistry when every single day, the team is basically fighting with each other about ‘I want to get more minutes’ and ‘I want a bigger role.'” Bertans said. “That was probably the biggest part of struggles for most guys during the season. That kinda early on doesn’t show up because everybody’s trying to figure out what’s going on. Once it starts going downhill, it’s really hard to turn around and start going up again.”

Bertans’ comments seem to confirm a recent statement from Kentavious Caldwell-Pope that “egos and agendas” sank the Wizards’ season after a 10-3 start. Last weekend, Montrezl Harrell, who has since been traded to Charlotte, lamented the mood in the locker room, and he and Caldwell-Pope reportedly got into a physical altercation during halftime of a game this season.

There’s more from Washington, D.C.:

When Thomas Bryant and Rui Hachimura returned from injuries, it created a logjam of minutes that made it impossible to keep everyone happy, notes Andrew Gillis of NBC Sports Washington. General manager Tommy Sheppard admits that factored into his decisions this week, but he believes a COVID-19 outbreak contributed to the team’s decline as well. “I do know we were 15-11 and COVID hit this team, and we really have been struggling ever since then to get our legs back under us,” Sheppard said. “Just when we thought it was behind us, then [center Daniel Gafford] gets hit the other day. That’s not an excuse, but those are facts. We’ve missed a lot of players during that time.”
Kristaps Porzingis, who missed Saturday’s game with a bone bruise in his right knee, hopes his long battle with injuries will end now that he’s with the Wizards, per Chase Hughes of NBC Sports Washington. “One is staying on the floor consistently. Now that I’m healthy and I’m moving well, that’s the thing I have to prove,” Porzingis said in his first session with the D.C. media. “I truly believe that my luck hasn’t been the best luck in terms of injuries. A lot of them, if not all of them have been contact injuries. Those you can’t really avoid, 100 percent. I do my part with being in the weight room, making sure my body is right to stay healthy. But you have to have a little bit of luck.”
The 2022 second-round pick that the Wizards received from Dallas in the Porzingis trade is top-45 protected, according to Real GM. Washington won’t receive the pick if it doesn’t convey this year.

Wolves Notes: Harrell, Trade Deadline, Gupta, Simmons, Roster Spot

February 12th, 2022 at 10:06pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Timberwolves wanted to add size to their front line, but the closest they came to making a trade at the deadline was a proposed swap with the Wizards involving Montrezl Harrell, according to Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic. Harrell could have helped a Minnesota team that has been near the bottom of the league in defensive rebounding all season, but Krawczynski states that there was internal debate about how he would have fit in. He’s only 6’7″ and isn’t a good outside shooter or an outstanding defender, so the Wolves passed on the deal and Harrell wound up in Charlotte.

Minnesota talked to the Celtics about acquiring Marcus Smart, but never made much traction, Krawczynski adds. Boston offered Josh Richardson and Romeo Langford in exchange for Malik Beasley, but the Wolves turned it down, feeling that Beasley’s outside shooting is too valuable to part with.

There’s more from Minnesota:

Executive vice president of basketball operations Sachin Gupta had plenty of incentive to make a huge trade by the deadline, but he didn’t feel like the right offer was available, Krawczynski writes in the same piece. Gupta, who took over his position when Gersson Rosas was fired before the start of training camp, could have felt pressure to shake up the roster before the new ownership group decides on his future with the organization. “I could imagine the perception that I would want to put my stamp on things and make a move just for the sake of it. But that’s just not how I operate,” Gupta said. “I’m going to operate from a position of what is best for this franchise, not for me.”
The Timberwolves had been mentioned frequently as Ben Simmons suitors since last summer, but the package the Nets got from the Sixers on Thursday is far better than anything Minnesota could have offered, contends Michael Rand of The Star Tribune. The Wolves didn’t have the star that Philadelphia president of basketball operations Daryl Morey was seeking, and they weren’t able to convince a third team to get involved. Rand also suggests that Minnesota may have benefited from keeping its young core together, rather than breaking it up for a shot at Simmons.
The Wolves have an open roster spot, but they won’t address it right away, at least not on a permanent basis, tweets Chris Hine of The Star Tribune. Gupta said the team doesn’t expect to fill that spot with more than a 10-day contract until at least March due to luxury tax concerns.

Wizards Notes: Beal, Point Guard, Porzingis, Batiste

February 11th, 2022 at 12:45pm CST by Luke Adams

Wizards guard Bradley Beal is out for the rest of the 2021/22 season after undergoing wrist surgery and can opt out of his contract this summer. However, president of basketball operations Tommy Sheppard remains confident that Beal hasn’t played his last game with the franchise.

“I believe Bradley is going to be here moving forward,” Sheppard told reporters on Friday (Twitter link via Chase Hughes of NBC Sports Washington). “… Certainly we plan on him being here in the future. If he feels otherwise, he will let us know.”

Multiple reports in recent weeks, both before and after Beal’s injury, have stated that the Wizards remain committed to offering the star guard a five-year contract if he turns down his player option in the offseason.

Here are a few more Wizards notes:

The Wizards’ point guard depth took a hit on Thursday when the team traded away Spencer Dinwiddie and Aaron Holiday just six months after acquiring them. Ish Smith and Raul Neto are handling point guard duties in the short term, but Sheppard said today that upgrading the position will be a priority for the club heading into 2022/23. “That’s our focus for sure in the offseason,” Sheppard said (Twitter link via Hughes).
The Wizards’ acquisition of Kristaps Porzingis was the “ultimate high-risk, high-reward move,” Josh Robbins writes for The Athletic. Discussing the move today, Sheppard said, “You can’t be afraid to take big swings” (Twitter link via Robbins).
Porzingis missed the Mavericks’ last five games due to a right knee bone bruise, but Sheppard expects the big man to be available soon, tweets Hughes. It’s possible Porzingis could make his Wizards debut as soon as Saturday.
Wizards assistant coach Mike Batiste was suspended two games without pay by the NBA for entering the stands in an attempt to confront a fan, the NBA announced on Thursday (via Twitter). The incident took place near the end of the team’s loss to Miami on Monday (video link). Batiste served the first game of his suspension on Thursday vs. Brooklyn and will serve the second on Saturday vs. Sacramento.

Lowe’s Latest: Gasol, Bucks, Suns, Pacers, Kings, Sixers, More

February 11th, 2022 at 12:10pm CST by Luke Adams

With Brook Lopez sidelined indefinitely, the Bucks and center Marc Gasol, who is currently playing for Girona in Spain, had discussed the possibility of a possible late-season deal, according to Zach Lowe of ESPN (Insider link). However, Lowe suggests that a union “does not appear to be in the cards” now that Milwaukee has acquired Serge Ibaka.

It’s worth noting that the Bucks have three open spots on their 15-man roster following the trade deadline, so there still could be room for Gasol down the road, and it’s not like he and Ibaka haven’t had success teaming up in the past — the two vets played key roles for the 2019 champion Raptors. Still, Milwaukee may be looking to address other positions with those open roster spots, and there’s no guarantee Gasol will look to return to the NBA when his season is over in Spain.

Here are a few more highlights from Lowe’s post-deadline roundup:

Sources confirmed to Lowe that the Suns and Pacers had brief discussions about Deandre Ayton and Domantas Sabonis, which was first reported by Jake Fischer of Bleacher Report. Fischer suggested the two teams might be exploring the idea of an offseason sign-and-trade involving Ayton, and Lowe agrees that the talks seem to have been just exploratory and informal, possibly aimed at the future rather than present. Indiana subsequently traded Sabonis to Sacramento, which could eliminate the possibility of any future deal with Phoenix for Ayton, but Lowe points out that the Suns’ willingness to consider shaking up their roster – even in the offseason – is noteworthy.
Before acquiring Sabonis, the Kings approached the Hawks about John Collins, but they didn’t discuss Tyrese Haliburton or De’Aaron Fox in that context, says Lowe.
Lowe expects the Sixers to explore the buyout market for a backup center, since there’s no guarantee that Paul Millsap will bounce back in Philadelphia and Charles Bassey is unproven.
The Spurs explored ways to move up in last year’s draft, according to Lowe, who notes that San Antonio has since gained more draft ammo to potentially revisit that idea going forward.
Lowe contends that Kristaps Porzingis should take his trade to the Wizards “as a huge slap in the face,” given the modest return the Mavericks received. As Lowe writes, Dallas appeared to be trying to gain more flexibility for future moves by taking back two (relatively) smaller contracts for Porzingis’ max deal, which could pay off down the road. But it “seems to be selling unthinkably low” on Porzingis, Lowe says.

Mavericks Trade Kristaps Porzingis To Wizards

February 10th, 2022 at 9:29pm CST by Luke Adams

9:29pm: The trade is official, according to a Wizards press release. Dallas also confirmed the deal in a press release, announcing that they’ve waived Brown.

The second-rounder going to Washington is a protected 2022 pick, the teams announced. It’ll have to be the Mavs’ own second-rounder, since they hadn’t previously acquired any others.

“Kristaps is an All-Star player whose unique talents will fit well within our system and allow him to impact the game for us in multiple ways,” Wizards president of basketball operations Tommy Sheppard said in a statement. “He will get a fresh start with our team and provide us with the opportunity to play multiple lineups that feature size, versatility and shooting ability.”

1:38pm: The Mavericks and Wizards have agreed to a major trade, according to reports from Shams Charania of The Athletic and Marc Stein (Twitter links).

Big man Kristaps Porzingis is headed to Washington in the deal, per Stein, while Dallas will receive point guard Spencer Dinwiddie, according to Charania. Tim MacMahon of ESPN reports (via Twitter) that the Mavs are also acquiring sharpshooter Davis Bertans, while Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN says (via Twitter) that the Wizards are getting a second-round pick.

The Mavs will release big man Moses Brown to complete the trade, tweets MacMahon.

According to Stein (via Twitter), the Mavs spent much of the day on Thursday trying to find a home for Porzingis, who was previously linked to the Raptors. Dallas gave up a significant package in 2019 to acquire Porzingis from the Knicks, but he has continued to battle health problems in the years since then and hasn’t developed into the star running mate for Luka Doncic that the Mavs envisioned. He is also owed nearly $70MM for the two years beyond this season.

This season, Porzingis has averaged 19.2 PPG and 7.7 RPG while playing improved defense, but his three-point rate dipped to a career-worst 28.3% and he has only been healthy for 34 of 55 games. Dallas has a 13-8 record in the games he has missed.

The Wizards, who are retooling their roster around Bradley Beal, will roll the dice on Porzingis, hoping he has more success in D.C. than he did in Dallas. They’ll give up Dinwiddie and Bertans, two players who struggled badly this season in the midst of pricey multiyear deals.

Dinwiddie, 28, signed a three-year contract with the Wizards in the offseason, but has shot just 37.6% from the floor in his first season back from ACL surgery. As Josh Robbins of The Athletic tweets, Dinwiddie never seemed comfortable in Washington’s offense without the ball in his hands, which happened a lot when he played alongside Beal.

Bertans, meanwhile, is in the second season of a five-year, $80MM contract, but has seen his three-point shooting fall off a cliff in 2021/22. A career 40.7% three-point shooter entering the season, the 29-year-old forward has made just 31.9% of his attempts from beyond the arc this year.

The Mavericks will be hoping that both players, who have had plenty of success in the past can bounce back in Dallas. Dinwiddie will give the team another ball-handler when Doncic and/or Jalen Brunson aren’t on the court, while Bertans will provide another floor-spacer to give Doncic more room to operate.

As Bobby Marks of ESPN notes (via Twitter), Dinwiddie will give the Mavs’ some insurance in case they’re unable to re-sign Brunson in unrestricted free agency this summer. However, sources tell MacMahon (Twitter link) that Dallas remains confident about its ability to retain Brunson beyond this season.

Hornets Acquire Montrezl Harrell From Wizards

February 10th, 2022 at 7:08pm CST by Arthur Hill

7:08pm: The trade is official, according to a Wizards press release. The pick Washington is receiving is a conditional seconder (2023 or 2024 from Boston via Charlotte).

The Hornets’ announcement states that the Wizards will receive the Celtics’ 2023 second-rounder if it’s not in the top 45. Presumably, if that pick lands in its protected range, Washington would instead get Boston’s 2024 second-rounder.

1:26pm: The Wizards are finalizing a deal to send veteran center Montrezl Harrell to the Hornets, tweets Shams Charania of The Athletic.

Washington will get Vernon Carey and Ish Smith in return, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link). The Wizards will also receive a second-round pick, per Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link).

Harrell, 28, will provide a rugged interior presence for a Charlotte team that has been searching for help in the middle. He was acquired from the Lakers in the five-team offseason trade that sent Russell Westbrook to L.A., and averaged 14.1 points and 6.7 rebounds in 46 games with the Wizards.

Moving Harrell relieves the logjam in the middle that Washington has been dealing with ever since Thomas Bryant returned from an ACL injury last month. However, the timing of the move is interesting because Harrell talked publicly over the weekend about the negative mood in the team’s locker room.

Harrell has a $9.7MM expiring contract, and the Hornets will have early Bird rights on him this summer, tweets Bobby Marks of ESPN. Harrell is a North Carolina native, which may make him more likely to remain in Charlotte.

Smith, who played two seasons in Washington before going to Charlotte, has a $4.7MM non-guaranteed contract for next season. Carey will make $1.8MM next year and has a $1.9MM team option for 2023/24.