
After a rough season that saw them land at eighth in the East and fall in the first round of the playoffs, the Washington Wizards are trying to dump at least one expiring contract, in order to clear cap space, and are willing to part with the 15th pick in the 2018 NBA Draft to do so, according to Ben Standig of the Sports Capitol:
The Wizards are open to trading down from the 15th overall pick in Thursday’s draft if another team takes on one of Washington’s expiring contracts.
That’s the message relayed from the Wizards to other NBA teams, a league source tells The Sports Capitol.
The Wizards have five players on expiring contracts: Marcin Gortat, owed $13.6 million next season; Markieff Morris, owed $8.6 million next season; Jason Smith, owed $5.5 million; Jodie Meeks, owed $3.5 million; Kelly Oubre Jr., owed $3.2 million; and Tomas Satoransky, owed $3.1 million.
The Wizards would likely be the most motivated to move the highest-paid of those players: Marcin Gortat.
The Wizards trading their draft pick wouldn’t be anything new; Washington hasn’t kept a pick since 2015.
Def Pen’s latest 2018 NBA Mock Draft has the Wizards drafting hyper-athletic Texas Tech product Zhaire Smith with that 15th pick.