Washington Wizards to get Spencer Dinwiddie in sign-and-trade deal; guard to sign 3-year, $60M co...

ByTim Bontemps ESPN logo
Thursday, August 5, 2021

The Wizards and Nets agreed to terms on a sign-and-trade deal that will send Spencer Dinwiddie to Washington, league sources told ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski on Wednesday.

The deal, which will see Dinwiddie receive a three-year contract worth close to $60 million from the Wizards, will send two second-round picks -- the more favorable of the Memphis Grizzlies' and Washington's second-round picks in 2024, and of the Golden State Warriors' and Wizards' in 2025 -- to the Nets, who will also receive an $11.5 million trade exception as part of the deal.

Washington will also send forward Chandler Hutchison to the San Antonio Spurs, along with a 2022 second-round pick, sources told Wojnarowski, allowing the Wizards to remain out of the luxury tax for next season.

Both of those moves will be folded into what is now a five-team trade that will ultimately send Russell Westbrook to the Los Angeles Lakers. In the deal, the Lakers received Westbrook; the Wizards will now receive Kyle Kuzma, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Montrezl Harrell from the Lakers, a second-round pick in last week's NBA draft that became G League Ignite forward Isaiah Todd, and point guard Aaron Holiday from the Indiana Pacers; and Dinwiddie from the Nets.

The first-round pick the Lakers originally agreed to send to Washington, the No. 22 pick in last week's draft, was rerouted to the Pacers for Kentucky forward Isaiah Jackson. The Spurs will get Hutchison and the second-round pick, while the Nets will wind up with the two second-rounders and the trade exception. The entire transaction won't be made official until Friday, when the league's annual moratorium on signings and trades is lifted, for salary-cap purposes.

Dinwiddie, 28, is coming off a season in which he played just three games for the Nets after partially tearing his right ACL in December, an injury that required season-ending surgery. Still, Dinwiddie completely revitalized his career after arriving in Brooklyn in December 2016, spending the past five seasons with the Nets and growing into a player who scored over 20 points and dished out more than six assists per game in the 2019-20 season.

But with the Nets heavily into the luxury tax, and with a roster now featuring Kyrie Irving and James Harden in the backcourt, keeping Dinwiddie in Brooklyn was never realistic.

Instead, he'll now replace Westbrook in Washington, where the Wizards will be hoping their active offseason can help convince superstar Bradley Beal to remain in Washington long term. Beal is eligible to sign a contract extension later this year and can become a free agent next summer. The Wizards have completely remade their roster in the span of a week, bringing in five veterans and two rookies in Corey Kispert and Todd while creating future salary flexibility, as well, in an attempt to move the franchise forward after a first-round exit from this year's playoffs.

"Now, that's no longer acceptable," Wizards general manager Tommy Sheppard told reporters after that first-round defeat at the hands of the Philadelphia 76ers. "We have to be much better next season and we will."

Washington also moved on from coach Scott Brooks, whose contract expired after the season, and hired former Denver Nuggets assistant Wes Unseld Jr. -- the son of the Washington Bullets legend and Hall of Famer -- last month.

Hutchison, 25, was the 22nd overall pick by the Chicago Bulls in the 2018 NBA draft. He came to Washington in a three-team deal shortly before the NBA's trade deadline in March, along with center Daniel Gafford, and averaged 4.3 points over 25 games for the Bulls and Wizards last season.

ESPN NBA front-office insider Bobby Marks contributed to this report.

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