The Washington Wizards had made a series of transactions leading up to Thursday’s deadline as headliners by acquiring former All-Star Kristaps Porzingis from the Dallas Mavericks for Spencer Dinwiddie and Davis Bertans, a source told Tim MacMahon of ESPN.
Meanwhile, the Charlotte Hornets acquired former Sixth Man of the Year Showl Harrell from the Wizards in exchange for Ish Smith and Vernon Carey, sources told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, with a second-round pick also headed to Washington, Yahoo Sports’ Chris Haynes reports.
Washington also traded goaltender Aaron Holiday to the Phoenix Suns, the Athletic’s Shams Charania reports. The Suns have given up money and will put the 25-year-old’s leave into the disabled player exemption granted because of Dario Saric’s torn ACL, according to John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7 FM.
Porzingis, 26, averaged 20 points, 8.8 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 1.7 blocks per game for three seasons with Dallas. Injuries also limited the availability of the tall 7-foot-3-inch man: out of 202 regular-season games since the start of the season, Porzingis recorded only 134 appearances.
At 24-29, the Wizards’ hopes of becoming the 11th head in a row to straighten out their season suffered a hard blow with the news on Tuesday that star keeper Bradley Beal would undergo wrist surgery at the end of the season.
Dinwiddie, who was acquired from the Brooklyn Nets in the offseason in the four-team exchange of Russell Westbrook, has 12.6 points per game at low crack efficiency and 5.8 assists per contest. He missed all but three games in 1 after suffering a partial ACL tear.
The 28-year-old goalkeeper is in the first year of a contract over three years with only a partially guaranteed figure for the 3 year.
For his part, Bertans has failed to honor the five-year contract & he signed after splitting from the Wizards. After averaging 15.4 points per game in his career with 42.4% in threesomes in his first year, the Latvian striker’s production dropped to 9.3 points per game with 37.6% in threesomes.
Harrell, another acquisition from Westbrook last summer, was facing a crisis of playing time even before the announced addition of Porzingis. The sixth man of the year, just as successfully registered 14.1 points, 6.7 rebounds and 2.1 assists per evening once again primarily as a reservist on the sides of the centers Daniel Gafford and Thomas Bryant.
