Wizards Will Make A Run At Jerami Grant In The Offseason
The Washington Wizards ended up being pretty active at the trade deadline, selling Montrezl Harrell to the Charlotte Hornets for Ish Smith and Vernon Carey Jr., but they also made a huge purchase by bringing in former All-Star Kristaps Porzingis.
For a while now, Washington has been one of the few teams to show trade interest in Kristaps Porzingis and while there was some chatter this past offseason and early on in the year about the Wizards possibly pursuing the Mavericks’ big man, no real trade talks ever developed.
This trade at the deadline was very surprising to many, as the Mavericks really never said that they were looking to trade Kristaps Porzingis. It was always in the back of everybody’s mind, but no one ever thought that they would actually be able to move Porzingis’ contract!
In addition to receiving Porzingis for Spencer Dinwiddie and Davis Bertans, the Wizards also added a future second-round pick from the Mavericks.
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Bradley Beal is out for the season and Kristaps Porzingis has been dealing with some injury issues of his own, but this was a move made by Washington in order to set them up to be aggressive in the offseason.
GM Tommy Sheppard proved this season at the trade deadline that the Wizards are not looking to rebuild and that they are going to be going “big game hunting” in the offseason. Similar to the Knicks situation, the Wizards are going to have a hard time finding free agents to bring in that will make a difference on their roster, but their attention seems to be on Jerami Grant in Detroit right now.
Grant was not traded at the deadline this season after there was heavy speculation that he would be on the move and the Pistons still do have interest in possibly moving him near the 2022 NBA Draft.
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With their draft pick likely to fall in the lottery, the Wizards could put together a very compelling trade offer of a 2022 lottery pick, as well as young talents like Rui Hachimura, Corey Kispert and/or Deni Avdija for Jerami Grant.
This is the situation we are looking at with the Wizards right now and it should not be surprising to see Washington form a “Big 3” of Beal, Porzingis and Grant relatively soon.
