Ten-time NBA all-star Anthony Davis and three other Dallas Mavericks players were traded to the Washington Wizards for four players and five draft picks, Shams Charina of ESPN first reported Feb. 4.
In the full trade, Washington will receive Anthony Davis, Jaden Hardy, D’Angelo Russell and Dante Exum while Dallas will get Khris Middleton, AJ Johnson, Malaki Branham, Marvin Bagley III, two first-round picks and three second-rounders.
The Wizards, who have won fewer than 20 of 82 games in each of the past two seasons, appear to be shifting to a win-now mindset as they pair young pieces and the recently-acquired Trae Young with Davis, a superstar at the tail end of his prime.
The Mavericks had been exploring trade opportunities for Davis for months. Acquired in a trade with the Los Angeles Lakers early last year, Davis proved disappointing for the Mavericks and increasingly seemed out of fit with their timeline to be competitive. The 32-year old only suited up for 29 of Dallas’s 40 games this season due to injury and, along with the ascension of rookie Cooper Flagg, the writing was on the wall for him.
The Wizards, meanwhile, add a proven talent to a roster that has been trending upward in recent months. While their record has remained abysmal — the team is currently in 14th place out of the Eastern Conference’s 15 teams — young pieces like Alex Sarr and Kyshawn George have taken sizable leaps in production and efficiency, while rookies like Tre Johnson and Will Riley have shown considerable promise.
The addition of Davis signals that the team believes it is done rebuilding and will be ready to compete as early as next season with a core of Young, Davis and Sarr.
Davis’s fit with the team is unquestionable if he can remain healthy. A perennial member of the league’s All-Defensive team, the center will form a potent defensive frontcourt with the rapidly ascending Sarr. Offensively, Davis will be able to take a backseat as point guard Trae Young handles more of the team’s scoring and playmaking duties.
The big question mark, for any evaluation of the trade, is if Davis can remain healthy. The Wizards will be hoping for Davis to return to his 2023-24 season form, when he started 76 games and was a valuable contributor in both minutes and points. If he does, the draft compensation they gave up may have been well worth it to become competitive immediately.
However, that workload could prove to be a tall ask from an injury-prone big man older than 30. Davis has only eclipsed the 60-games-played mark twice since 2018, and this trend is only likely to continue as he gets older.
If it does, Davis, who is owed nearly $60 million each of the next two years, could look more and more like an albatross for the Wizards. If he is unable to contribute, Davis’s heavy salary cap load could prevent the team from moving on in any reasonable window.
The other pieces involved in the trade deserve some minimal consideration as well. Russell should be a serviceable point guard for the Wizards, who have been lacking in depth since trading starting point guard C.J. McCollum in January for the currently-injured Young.
Hardy and Exum, meanwhile, will serve to improve Washington’s bench. While Middleton and Bagley III’s presence will be missed, their production should be simple to replicate through off-season signings.
Looking forward, the Wizards will face teams with a mix of records over the next few weeks: away games against the Detroit Pistons, Brooklyn Nets and Cleveland Cavaliers, along with home games against the Miami Heat and Indiana Pacers.
Washington fans should expect the team to lose most of these games as the organization shields its top-eight protected pick, meaning Washington only gets the draft pick if it lands eighth or better. In pursuit of this, Davis and Young, who are both currently injured, may not see the court for the rest of the season.
Regardless, fans will likely have to wait until next season to judge whether the gamble for Davis will bear any fruit. It is only then that the full picture will become clear, a picture that will either show continued leaps from young players and a resurgence from two of the league’s most criticized stars, or continual injuries and further disappointment for fans. If the Wizards do not get good — and quickly — this trade may begin to seem more like a poisoned apple than a game changer.