2019 Southeast NBA Free Agency Primer – The under performing division
Washington Wizards
Situation Entering Offseason:
For a team with one of the best backcourts in the Association, the Wizards began the last campaign with their sights clearly set on competing for a title. For years this Wizards squad has underperformed and last season they limped out of the gate again.
John Wall’s initial injury was a setback, but the second injury confirming he tore his Achilles sent the team spiraling. Prior to the Wall’s injuries owner Ted Leonsis stated there was no way he would break up the trio of Wall, Bradley Beal and Otto Porter Jr. But, knowing Wall would miss the remainder of the 2018-19 season and likely all of the upcoming season his stance shifted.
Not only was Porter traded, but the long serving GM Ernie Grunfeld was released. Even more perplexing the Wizards didn’t fill his position and entered the draft with an interim GM (Sheppard) and selected a player (Rui Hachimura) they never worked out or even spoke to. Hachimura may turn into a quality pro, but his pick is baffling since he doesn’t address the Wizards roster gaps.
Suffice to say, the Wizards are arguably the East’s greatest disappointment and it sure doesn’t seem like they’ve positioned themselves to recover any time soon.
Salary:
Cap Space: $ (68,775,011.00)
Floor Space: $ 16,458,321.00
Max Space: $ 16,161,988.00
Projected Space: $ (63,875,011.00)
*as per Keith Smith of Real GM
Key free agents to re-sign
The hope was Trevor Ariza would fill the defensive role of the exiting OPJ, but the Wizards were abysmal on that end of the floor last season. Subsequently, the Wizards enter free agency in dire need of shoring up the frontcourt and improving defensively.
That may be why the team is electing to not opt into Jabari Parker’s option. Perhaps Parker’s infamous statement of not being paid to defend will come back to haunt him. Or this could be a previously agreed to deal between the player and team to renegotiate a longer term deal.
Dwight Howard hasn’t exactly helped matters for the Wizards and he holds all the power with his player option ($5.6M) although it’s not an overbearing amount, especially if he can play (notably – he played in just 9 games last season).
Yahoo Sources: Washington Wizards will decline $20 million team option on Jabari Parker, but there’s mutual interest in re-signing. https://t.co/7l8njqXvUE
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) June 22, 2019
2019 Roster Depth:
- Bradley Beal
- Troy Brown Jr.
- Dwight Howard
- Ian Mahinmi
- Jordan McRae
- Tarik Phillip
- Jonathon Simmons
- John Wall
Draft Picks:
- Rui Hachimura
- Admiral Schofield
More from Thunderous Intentions
- Stealing one player from every Southwest Division team for the OKC Thunder
- Should the OKC Thunder chase after a disgruntled hometown hero?
- 3 OKC Thunder players who can step up in Aleksej Pokusevski’s absence
- Aleksej Pokusevski sidelined approximately 6 weeks with ankle injury
- Damian Lillard does not fit with the OKC Thunder
2019 free agents
Sam Dekker (Restricted)
Chasson Randle (Restricted)
Trevor Ariza
Dwight Howard (Player)
Tomas Satoransky (Restricted – team extended qualifying offer)
Thomas Bryant (Restricted – team extended qualifying offer)
Jabari Parker (Team will decline his option as per above tweet)
Bobby Portis (Restricted – team extended qualifying offer)
Jeff Green
Devin Robinson
2020 free agents
Ian Mahinmi
Jordan McRae
Tarik Phillip
If I had to pick one division in the league, the Southeast is the one I’d peg to have the least change in placement in the 2019-20 season.
Next. How Kemba Walker’s landing spot will impact OKC. dark
For the OKC Thunder what occurs in this division won’t have a huge impact on the squad unless Kemba Walker ends up moving into the West which at this point seems unlikely. This division will likely have the worst records of all the divisions next year (again barring big trades), so it won’t factor much for the Thunder who’ll only get to play each of these teams twice in the coming year.