The expected silence from the Washington Wizards arrived during a drawn-out NBA draft on Thursday night.
The Wizards entered and left the draft with no picks. There was a possibility that they would buy their way into the second round, but they instead took in the draft without any movement.
“The people we were looking at weren’t available [at] the time we were looking at,” general manager Ernie Grunfeld said.
Washington began to make moves afterward. They signed 6-foot-7 guard Danuel House out of Texas A&M, according to Yahoo! Sports. They also signed Miami shooting guard Sheldon McClellan to the roster, according to David Aldridge. McClellan is a tough 6-foot-6, 198-pound scorer who played two years at Texas before moving onto Miami.
The Wizards are just beginning their work. Assuming they re-sign restricted free agent Bradley Beal, they will have just six players under contract. Though, as Grunfeld pointed out repeatedly after the draft, five of those constitute the team’s starting five: John Wall, Beal, Otto Porter, Markieff Morris and Marcin Gortat. Kelly Oubre Jr., moving into his second year in the league, rounds out the players under contract in what is sure to be a wild summer. The NBA salary cap is taking a leap and teams across the league, including Washington, are flush with salary cap space.
“This is going to be a new experience for everybody,” Grunfeld said. “Normally, three or four teams have max cap room to offer and this year there might be 15 or 16. Things are going to happen maybe quicker. Maybe they’re going to happen slower and people are going to wait for the dominoes to fall.”
The free agent period begins July 1.
• Todd Dybas can be reached at tdybas@washingtontimes.com.
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