If either were traded to another team, the Wizards would have been able to keep Jared Butler.
The Washington Wizards waived Jared Butler yesterday, but it wasn’t because they wanted to get rid of him per se. Rather, it was because the Wizards were unable to trade Patrick Baldwin, Jr. or Johnny Davis, according to Keith Smith of Spotrac.
The Wizards canvassed the league looking for a home for Patrick Baldwin Jr or Johnny Davis. The Wizards weren’t willing to give up a draft pick to entice a team to take on either player. Thus, Washington waived Jared Butler to avoid taking on further dead salary on their books.
— Keith Smith (@KeithSmithNBA) October 19, 2024
Baldwin is on the third year of his rookie scale contract with a cap hit of $2.45 million. The Wizards (or whichever team he is on has the option to keep him next season for $4.4 million. Last season, Baldwin averaged 4.4 points per game in 38 appearances.
Davis is also on the third year of his rookie scale contract with a cap hit of $5.2 million. The Wizards (or whatever team he is on) has an option to keep him next season for $6.76 million. Last season, he averaged 3.0 points per game.
While it’s true that Davis had a strong performance against the Knicks last Friday, it’s also true that he and Baldwin weren’t significant contributors last season for the Wizards, and they probably won’t be the stars of this season’s team either.
Like Smith wrote, the Wizards likely aren’t considering either player in their medium term plans given their history so far in the NBA. After all, the team option deadline is on Oct. 31, and this report makes it seems like neither player will get the fourth year option.
So why can’t the Wizards simply waive them instead but keep Butler, who averaged 6.3 points and 3.1 assists last season? This is just me, but perhaps it’s because the Wizards are trying to service them for a future trade this season should one of their bigger contributors be traded. But Butler could have also been such a player in that situation.
Also, if I were Wizards General Manager Will Dawkins, it doesn’t make sense to trade Davis or Baldwin and add a future first round draft pick to it. Not even a second round pick. And money wise, keeping Davis and Baldwin for one more season isn’t the worst thing in the world since they aren’t making THAT much of the NBA salary cap.
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