Washington Wizards: Top 5 Moments of the Decade
By Jack Skolnik
#5: (2019) The Washington Wizards trade for San Antonio Spurs sharpshooter, Davis Bertans
The first moment on this list made it for a couple of reasons. Expectations were low going into 2019 offseason for the Washington Wizards. With not a lot of cap space to work with, the Wiz needed to get creative with making improvements to their roster.
The San Antonio Spurs were in need of some front court help and sought out former Celtic Forward, Marcus Morris. In need of salary cap relief to sign Morris, the Spurs had to move on from the Latvian sharpshooter in order to make room for Morris and Washington was quick to pounce.
Washington ended up trading Aaron White, a former 2nd round pick who has yet to play in the NBA, to the Brooklyn Nets in a three team deal that landed them Bertans. (Oh, and Marcus Morris ended up signing with the Knicks instead..HA).
Obviously, so far this trade has done wonders for the Wizards as Bertans is shooting a blistering 43% from three in a career year for the Washington Wizards. As we have talked about on this site, Bertans has been a very hot commodity in the trade market in which there are reasons that some believe DC should keep Bertans and others believe they should move him.
Regardless of what the decision ends up being, this is one of those ‘good’ problems considering the Wizards gave up next to nothing to get him. The Wizards were in a tough position with their salary cap sheet and made the most of what they could do.
Which brings us to the next point as to why this trade is on this list.
Prior to this summer, the Wizards were notorious for bad deal after bad deal under former management, who we will get to later. So many times over the years, the Wizards were fleeced in moves in free agency or trades.
In his first offseason as GM for the Wiz, Tommy Sheppard gave us a sigh of relief, showing that he is nothing like his former boss. This trade was one that looked like it was made by a seasoned vet GM and the Wizards are now enjoying the benefits.
After years of making ugly deal after ugly deal, it was nice to see the Wizards not only on the opposite side of this spectrum, but to also see them benefit from the deal in the short and long term.