Report: Spencer Dinwiddie Will Join The Wizards On A $62 Million Deal In A Sign-And-Trade

The point guard class is the headliner of this year’s NBA free agency, and after the three veteran All-Stars at the top (Chris Paul, Kyle Lowry, and Mike Conley), Spencer Dinwiddie figured to garner the most interest as teams looked for a lead creator for their backcourt.

Dinwiddie had his breakout in 2018-19 and followed that up with an even better 2019-20 campaign, averaging 20.6 points and 6.8 assists for the Nets, and was hoping to show his value in a different role alongside Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant this past season. However, just three games in, Dinwiddie suffered a partially torn ACL that ended his season and saw the Nets go out and trade for James Harden.

As a result, Dinwiddie’s market was a bit muddled. There is obviously high upside, but coming off a knee injury teams had some trepidation about meeting his desires for a long term deal. As the first night of free agency came and went on Monday, the point guard market seemingly began drying up. The Bulls signed Lonzo Ball and Alex Caruso to fill their needs, while the Pelicans replaced Ball with Devonte’ Graham. The Heat signed Kyle Lowry, and the Mavs seemed more interested in pursuing Goran Dragic from the Raptors than using their cap room to make a big pursuit of anyone left on the point guard market.

That left Dinwiddie with relatively few suitors, but one that many expected to be in the mix after the Russell Westbrook trade, the Washington Wizards, emerged just after midnight on the East coast, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

While Washington didn’t have cap space, they did suddenly have a number of movable contracts from the Westbrook trade to make a sign-and-trade happen, it was just a matter of working out the final contract number with Dinwiddie and a deal with the Nets. Per Jake Fischer of Bleacher Report, the Wizards and Dinwiddie were approaching a compromise on a number at around $20 million per year for three years as their meeting in Los Angeles stretched into the night.

However, for the next 36 hours there was little reported on the Dinwiddie front as the focus shifted from contract negotiations to trade negotiations between the Nets, Wizards, and other teams, but Shams Charania of The Athletic broke word on Wednesday evening that Dinwiddie was indeed headed to Washington on a 3-year, $62 million deal, with the Nets getting a pick swap and a future second rounder in return.

Dinwiddie confirmed his new team with a cheeky tweet.

Adding Dinwiddie to Bradley Beal certainly gives the Wizards a potent offensive backcourt, and with Westbrook’s salary now in L.A. and getting Dinwiddie at just over $20 million per year, they are in position to have more to spend in building around those two in the future, should this be enough to keep Beal of the belief the franchise is on the right trajectory.

The Wizards had to send some salary out to make Dinwiddie’s new deal work, but the Nets obviously didn’t want to take on anything given their tax situation. As such, Chandler Hutchinson is headed to San Antonio, per Woj, who also detailed the pick details for the Nets. The deal will officially be a 5-teamer, as the Wizards deals with the Lakers and Pacers will all be folded into this one, massive trade when the league year officially opens.

That 2025 pick swap is not a first round swap but a second round swap, meaning Wizards fans concerned they had given up too much in this when the initial reporting emerged can enjoy a sigh of relief courtesy of ESPN’s Tim Bontemps.

The Nets get a second rounder and clear a big traded player exception with the deal that they could use, if they want, to add a significant addition at some point. For the Wizards, they manage to keep all of the players they got from the Westbrook trade and land Dinwiddie without having to give up any real draft assets and that has to feel like a significant win in the nation’s capital.