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The Wizards and Nuggets are nearing an agreement on a trade that would send point guard Monte Morris and wing Will Barton to Washington in exchange for swingman Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and point guard Ish Smith, sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski confirms the terms reported by Charania, adding (via Twitter) that the two teams are in the process of finalizing a deal.
The Wizards, which had previously been linked to Morris, will get a much-needed upgrade at the point guard spot in the trade, adding a player who was considered one of the NBA’s best backups before being thrust into a starting role last season as 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 on .484/.395/.869 shooting in 75 games (29.9 MPG).
Washington will also acquire Barton, a solid shooter and scorer who has averaged 14.0 PPG, 5.0 RPG and 3.3 APG with a .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 served as a Nuggets assistant.
The move reduces the likelihood of the Wizards seriously pursuing a player like Tyus Jones in free agency or Malcolm Brogdon via trade.
Meanwhile, the Nuggets will add a player they had been targeting since the trade deadline in Caldwell-Pope, according to Mike Singer of the Denver Post (Twitter
links). Singer says Denver views Caldwell-Pope as a two-way upgrade on the wing, values his championship experience with the Lakers and would be interested in retaining him beyond next season.
The 29-year-old 3-and-D swingman averaged 13.2 PPG and made 39.0% of his three-pointers for the Wizards in 2021-22, while playing his usual strong defense.
As for Smith, he’ll provide depth at point guard for a Nuggets team that should be getting Murray back this fall and saw Bones Hyland enjoy a breakout season as a rookie. Assuming Smith plays in at least one game for Denver, it’ll be his 13th NBA team, breaking a league record, tweets Matt Williams of ESPN.
As Bobby Marks of ESPN notes (via Twitter), if no more players are added to the four-player deal, the two teams will have to wait until after the July moratorium to make it official.
Caldwell-Pope ($14M) and Smith ($4.73M) entered the offseason without fully guaranteed salaries for 2022-23, but Caldwell-Pope locked in his guarantee on Tuesday and Smith is expected to receive as well in order to adhere to salary-matching rules and make the deal legal.
Caldwell-Pope, Smith and Barton ($14.38M) will all be on expiring contracts and are eligible for unrestricted free agency in 2023. Morris will earn $9.13M in ’22-23 and $9.8M in ’23-24 before becoming an unrestricted free agent.
The Nuggets will likely absorb Smith’s incoming contract using part of the $8.2M trade exception they created in last week’s JaMychal Green trade. That would allow them to create a new larger trade exception, worth at least Morris’ outgoing salary ($9.13M), per Marks.
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