The Washington Wizards are nearing a sign-and-trade agreement to land Brooklyn Nets point guard Spencer Dinwiddie, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. The deal would pay him roughly $60 million over three years, according to Bleacher Report’s Jake Fischer. The deal is not yet complete, though, because the Wizards do not have the cap space to sign Dinwiddie outright. They must come to a sign-and-trade agreement with Brooklyn, and that strategy comes with complications.
The Nets are far above the luxury tax entering next season thanks to their three superstars: Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and James Harden. Throw in big contracts for Joe Harris and DeAndre Jordan that are also on the books and the Nets might wind up being the most expensive team in basketball next season. A Dinwiddie sign-and-trade, without a third team, might assure that. The Nets would have to take back 80 percent of Dinwiddie’s outgoing salary to make a trade legal, and that would push their tax bill up to historic heights. In all likelihood, the Nets would have to reroute salary elsewhere to make such a move feasible.
There are ways to do so. Oklahoma City still has plenty of space to absorb contracts. There are teams that have trade exceptions capable of absorbing contracts that Brooklyn might want to move in this deal. But rarely are such moves cheap. It might cost draft capital just to make a move like this legal. In all likelihood, the two sides are discussing these details and trying to find a way to get Dinwiddie to Washington in a way that doesn’t financially impact the Nets.
There appears to be optimism that such an arrangement can be made. Dinwiddie would be replacing Russell Westbrook at point guard for the Wizards, completing a roster overhaul that has taken place in less than a week. The Wizards hope those moves convince Bradley Beal to remain in Washington for the long haul. As the Nets learned in 2019, Dinwiddie is an excellent free-agent recruiter. Assuming a deal gets done, he’ll now have a year to try to persuade Beal to stay with him in the nation’s capital.