The Washington Wizards are trading Jonas Valanciunas to the Sacramento Kings in exchange for Sidy Cissoko and two second-round picks. The news was first reported by Shams Charania of ESPN.
The Washington Wizards are trading Jonas Valanciunas to the Sacramento Kings for Sidy Cissoko and two second-round picks, sources tell ESPN.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) February 5, 2025
Valanciunas signed with the Wizards this past summer on a three-year contract with an average annual value of around $10 million. That is a reasonable contract for a player of Valanciunas’ pedigree, and the contract was seen as a trade chip from the moment it was inked.
The Kings were a team always seen as a good fit for Valanciunas, along with other depth-starved should-be contenders like the Los Angeles Lakers, Phoenix Suns, and Milwaukee Bucks.
In exchange for Valanciunas, Washington now gets the chance to take a flier on the 20-year-old Cissoko. He has only played in 29 NBA games across two seasons and averages 2.3 points per game for his career. If Cissoko works out in Washington, he will join fellow Frenchmen Bilal Coulibaly and Alex Sarr in forming an athletic French Wizards nucleus.
Cissoko was drafted by the San Antonio Spurs in the second round of the 2023 NBA Draft, the same draft in which they selected Victor Wembanyama. Cissoko was recently flipped to the Sacramento Kings as part of the larger De’Aaron Fox trade, but he never suited up for the team and is instead being re-routed to Washington.
The two second round picks are certainly a welcome sweetener as Washington seeks to add to its war chest of draft assets at the trade deadline. For Sacramento, they finally get a backup center to alleviate Domantas Sabonis and provide some matchup versatility. Valanciunas is not a floor spacer, so the two are unlikely to share the court for any extended periods of time.
With Kyle Kuzma being traded earlier this morning and now Valanciunas on his way to Sacramento, the main Wizard trade candidate still on the roster is Malcolm Brogdon. The Washington front office is almost certainly fielding offers for the veteran, who will likely be on the move in the next 24 hours.
It's already been a crazy deadline, with marquee names such as Luka Doncic, Anthony Davis, De'Aaron Fox, Kyle Kuzma, and Zach LaVine all on the move. Speculation has swirled around players like Jimmy Butler, Kevin Durant, and Brandon Ingram, all of whom could be on the move ahead of the impending deadline.
The NBA trade deadline is tomorrow at 3 p.m. EST.