How The Washington Wizards Recovered From Their Off-season Losses

After a successful 44-win season and a first round series win over the Chicago Bulls, the Washington Wizards entered this summer expecting to retain all of their key pieces.

As we all know, it’s virtually impossible for a team to bring back every player from the previous season and the Washington Wizards lost a couple of key contributors from their team this off-season. Despite losing a few key pieces from their successful season, the Washington Wizards still managed to recover.

For the most part, the Washington Wizards brought back all of their contributing players, including Marcin Gortat, but here’s how they bounced back from their losses.

– Trevor Ariza agrees to a 4-year deal with the Houston Rockets; the Washington Wizards sign Paul Pierce to a 2-year deal

Although re-signing Marcin Gortat to a long term deal was the Washington Wizards’ top priority this summer, re-signing Trevor Ariza was also very important to the team, especially considering how well he played throughout their run in the NBA Playoffs.

Ariza averaged 14.4 points, but shot a career-high 41% from three this past season, making him one of the best 3-and-D players in the league. Washington has maintained a top-10 defense ever since Randy Wittman took over for Flip Saunders, implementing a defensive oriented system, but Trevor Ariza’s ability to contain the opposing team’s best offensive player each night played a big part in the Wizards’ success.

Ariza, like most players coming off a career season, expected to get a raise after making over $7 million per season, but the Wizards remained adamant about not breaking the bank in order to retain him. Reports suggested that Ariza was looking for $8-12 million per season, but that was obviously out of the Wizards’ price range. He ultimately settled for a 4-year/$32 million deal with the Houston Rockets, returning to Texas where there’s no state income tax.

Losing Trevor Ariza will obviously hurt the Wizards since they’ll no longer have the luxury of playing one of the top defensive wing players in the NBA, but management didn’t waste much time in finding a replacement.

Instead of signing a cheap replacement for Ariza, the Wizards agreed to a deal with future Hall-of-Famer Paul Pierce. Pierce’s deal is for the mid-level exception, a deal that’s worth much less than the one Trevor Ariza received. Oh, and it expires in 2016 (*cough Kevin Durant cough*)

Paul Pierce isn’t the same player he once was, but he’s still capable of scoring, more importantly in the fourth quarter, but he’ll also give the Wizards some added leadership in the locker room.

Pierce averaged 13.5 points, 4.6 rebounds and 2.4 assists with the Brooklyn Nets last season. Washington needed to replace Ariza with someone who’s capable of shooting from the outside and scoring in the fourth quarter, so they certainly got that with Pierce. His ability to play both forward spots will give Wittman a chance to display different lineups throughout the season, and it’ll also take some pressure off of Wall and Beal offensively.

By trading Ariza to the Houston Rockets instead of simply letting him walk in free agency, the Wizards also got a $8.5 million trade exception back, which led to another signing.

–Trevor Booker agrees to a 2-year deal with the Utah Jazz; the Washington Wizards acquire Kris Humphries and DeJuan Blair

Booker became a big part of the Wizards’ rotation after Nene went down with injury, but more importantly, he performed well and helped Washington stay afloat in the conference.

Unlike Kevin Seraphin, who received a qualifying offer, the Wizards didn’t extend the Q.O. to Trevor Booker because his was worth nearly $5 million, a price that was obviously a bit too steep for the team.

Washington allowed Booker to become an unrestricted free agent and were reportedly interested in re-signing him to a cheaper deal, but he ultimately agreed to a $10 million contract with the Jazz. The Wizards had to find a third big man and they did so with the trade exception they received after losing Trevor Ariza.

They used a portion of the trade exception in a deal with the Boston Celtics to acquire Kris Humphries. Humphries agreed to a 3-year/$13 million deal with the Washington Wizards, the third year being a team option.

Humphries will give the Washington Wizards more offensive production than Booker, but he’ll also replace his energy and rebounding. He averaged a double-double just a few seasons ago before playing a reduced role for the Nets and Celtics, so he can provide some relief if/when Nene needs a rest or misses some time.

Washington also used one of their smaller trade exceptions to acquire DeJuan Blair from the Dallas Mavericks. Blair, like Booker, is undersized, but he makes up for his lack of height with energy and hustle. Blair is one of the top rebounding big men in the NBA and he’ll help provide some depth at both front court spots for the Wizards.

Both Humphries and Blair are only under contract for two seasons, with the third season being a team option, so the Wizards did not overpay to replace Booker. Humphries has been more productive than Booker, so instead of keeping Booker on a bigger deal, Ernie Grunfeld and the rest of the Washington Wizards’ front office managed to get better while keeping flexibility.

– Sam Cassell joins Doc Rivers‘ coaching staff with the Los Angeles Clippers; Washington Wizards add former Clippers assistant Howard Eisley to staff

The departures of Ariza and Booker were both key losses for the Washington Wizards, but they also lost Sam Cassell to the Los Angeles Clippers.

Cassell has gotten credit for helping develop both John Wall and Bradley Beal, and he also played a big part in convincing Paul Pierce that D.C. was a solid destination for free agents. He also coached the Wizards’ summer league team where we saw both Otto Porter and Glen Rice Jr. play extremely well.

Rumors surfaced of Cassell possibly joining Doc Rivers’ staff in Los Angeles, and it became official not too long after.

Sam Cassell has been a part of the Washington Wizards’ coaching staff since 2010 under Flip Saunders and he’s been with John Wall for all of his four seasons in the NBA, so the team needed to find a way to replace him.

Washington hired former Nets assistant, Roy Rogers, who also coached Pierce in Brooklyn, but they needed to find an assistant who has played the guard position in the past. They recently hired former Clippers assistant, Howard Eisely, giving Wall and Beal another mentor after losing Cassell.

The Wizards and Clippers essentially swapped Cassell and Eisely, and even though Eisely didn’t have the same amount of success in his playing career, he does have experience coaching under Rivers and Vinny Del Negro.