Withers and Nuggets are nearing a deal to send defender Monte Morris and winger Will Barton to Washington in exchange for swingman Centavius Caldwell-Pope and guard Ish Smith, according to Shams Charania sources from The Athletic (Twitter link).
ESPN’s Adrian Voynarovski confirmed the terms announced by Charania, adding (via Twitter) that both teams are in the process of finalizing the deal.
The Wizards, who were previously linked to Morris, will get much-needed improvement in trading points by adding a player who was considered one of the best backups in the NBA before being inducted last season while Jamal Murray recovered from ACL surgery.
In his first year as a full-time starter, Morris averaged 12.6 PPG, 4.4 APG and 3.0 RPG when shooting .484 / .395 / .869 in 75 games (29.9 MPG). The Nuggets have received calls from more than 20 teams about the 27-year-old, according to Mike Singer of The Denver Post.
Washington will also acquire Barton, a solid scorer and scorer who has averaged 14.0 PPG, 5.0 RPG and 3.3 APG with 0.362 3PT% in 479 regular season games for the Nuggets since arriving in Denver in 2015.
Wizards head coach Wes Unseld Jr. is very familiar with both players, having previously been an assistant to the Nuggets.
This move reduces the likelihood that Wizards will seriously pursue a point guard like Thais Jones in a free agency or Malcolm Brogden through trading.
Meanwhile, the Nuggets will add a player they have been targeting since the Caldwell-Pope trading deadline, according to Singer. Denver sees Caldwell-Pope as a two-way winger upgrade, appreciates his championship experience with the Lakers and would be interested in keeping him after next season, Singer added.
The 29-year-old Caldwell-Pope averaged 13.2 PPG and made 39.0% of his triples for the Wizards in 2021/22 while playing his usual strong defense.
As for Smith, he will provide depth as a point guard for the Nuggets team, which is due to bring Murray back this fall, and saw Bones Highland enjoy a breakthrough season as a rookie. Assuming Smith plays at least one game for Denver, it will be his 13th team in the NBA, breaking the league record, tweeted Matt Williams of ESPN.
As Bobby Marx of ESPN (via Twitter) notes, if no more players are added to the four-player deal, both teams will have to wait after the moratorium in July to make it official, as the Wizards take in a few million dollars more than send while the Nuggets save some money on salaries for next season.
Caldwell-Pope ($ 14 million) and Smith ($ 4.73 million) entered the off-season without fully guaranteed salaries for 2022/2023, but Caldwell-Pope closed his guarantee on Tuesday and Smith is about to receive, too. to adhere to the salary – matching rules and make the transaction legal. The unguaranteed salary is not counted in the transactions for outgoing purposes.
Caldwell-Pope, Smith and Barton ($ 14.38 million) will all have expiring contracts next season and qualify for an unlimited free agency in 2023. Morris will earn $ 9.13 million in ’22/23 and $ 9.8 million in ’23/24 before becoming an unlimited free agent.
The Nuggets are likely to take over Smith’s inbound contract using part of the $ 8.2 million trading exception they created in JaMychal Green’s trade last week. This would allow them to create a new major trade exemption, costing at least Morris’ outgoing salary ($ 9.13 million) in marks.
Add Comment