Bradley Beal had not heard trade rumors or followed what went on during all-star weekend. His broken phone would not power on, he claimed, then brought out the cracked hardware to show his proof.
“All this money, and can’t get a phone,” Beal said.
Beal was stuck with his broken phone in the Dominican Republic during the week away. Once he was back in Verizon Center on Wednesday night, he learned first person that he had new teammates.
The Washington Wizards approached the NBA trade deadline in desperate need of bench help. They acquired it Wednesday by sending a lottery protected 2017 first-round draft pick, guard Marcus Thornton and forward Andrew Nicholson to the going-nowhere Brooklyn Nets for shooter Bojan Bogdanovic and seldom-used 22-year-old Chris McCullough.
“Bojan is a very good shooter and a talented overall scorer whose versatility gives us an added dimension as we gear up for the stretch run,” Wizards general manager Ernie Grunfeld said in a statement. “He is a proven starter that will provide us an added boost off the bench and allow us to be creative with our lineups.”
Bogdanovic is the key in the deal. He is a 6-foot-8 shooter averaging 14.2 points per game this season for woebegone Brooklyn. The 27-year-old is a career 36.6 percent 3-point shooter who will give Washington another option to spread the floor with.
The primary cost to obtain his services was Washington’s 2017 first-round pick. Nicholson and Thornton were both out of the playing rotation.
Wizards coach Scott Brooks was unable to comment on the trade Wednesday night when he met with the media since it was yet to be processed by the league. Though, he was asked what a prospective increase in range shooting could do for the bench rotation.
“Shooting is such a big part of the game, even more so the last few years,” Brooks said. “The 3-point ball is powerful. When we win that game, we’re hard to beat like a lot of teams are.”
Bogdanovic is a jolt to one of the league’s meek bench groups. He will move into the top eight players on the team, joining the recently recovered Ian Mahinmi and some combination of Kelly Oubre, Trey Burke and Tomas Satoransky.
What the trade does not do is resolve Washington’s issue at backup point guard. Burke and Satoransky have been disappointments as the primary ball-handler with the second group. Adding Bogdanovic should create more space for both. The Wizards could go with a bench group of Burke, Satoransky, Oubre or Bogdanovic, Markieff Morris and Jason Smith. That would open the floor. Smith plays as a pick-and-pop center and has recently begun to shoot more 3-pointers. Mahinmi remains a traditional, defense-first center.
Leverage is a challenge at the trade deadline, which is 3 p.m. Thursday. The Wizards did not have much since they and the rest of the league knew how desperate they were for bench player improvement and that they had one asset: their 2017 first-round pick.
Sending Nicholson to Brooklyn allows the Wizards to get out from under his four-year contract that was signed in the offseason. Nicholson was out of the rotation and eating up significant salary cap space. Only the starting five and Mahinmi took up more salary space than Nicholson, who has just played 231 minutes in 55 games this season.
Grunfeld can be credited for attaching Nicholson’s contract to the first-round pick in order to get the deal done.
Rounding out the trade is the veteran Thornton, who, like Nicholson, was moved out of the playing rotation after given a chance earlier in the season.
Coming to Washington along with Bogdanovic is second-year forward Chris McCullough. He’s just 22 years old and has played 14 games this season.
The trade could turn out to just be a rental. Since Bogdanovic comes to the team on the last year of his contract, he will be an in-demand restricted free agent this summer. As will Otto Porter, who the Wizards will have to pay a massive sum to keep around. Moving Nicholson’s contract provides Washington with a small amount of room against the salary cap. But, it still will be without a large gap to maneuver with this summer after likely paying Porter via his Bird Rights. That means Bogdanovic could be part of the Wizards for just 27 games and the playoffs. If that’s the case, those two or so months will have cost Washington a first-round pick in what is projected to be one of the deepest drafts of recent years.
At the least, Bogdanovic will be a boost for the surging Wizards. At 34-21, Washington has galloped into third place in the Eastern Conference following two potent months and continued success in February.
“You’re always going into the all-star break concerned,” Brooks said. “It’s a lot of days off. All the speculation and rumors are out there. But coming back from the break, I love what we did [Wednesday]. I love the guy’s energy, I love the guy’s focus. Enthusiasm was high.”
It also helps them keep up with other Eastern Conference teams. The Toronto Raptors added Serge Ibaka last week. The Boston Celtics, a spot ahead of the Wizards in the standings, are expected to make a significant move before the deadline arrives. Top-seeded Cleveland is also expected to make a move. Acquiring Bogdanovic for a first-round pick means the Wizards chose continue invest in this season, one that could result in homecourt advantage and their first 50-win season since 1979.
“We got a great thing going right now,” Markieff Morris said. “We want to take this unit we have and just keep building on it for years to come. Right now, I know we exceeded a lot of expectations. But for ourselves, we know we can get better. We know we can add a couple more pieces and make this a title contending team. We got some young guys that we want to keep getting better that we got a lot of hope and a lot of faith in. We just want to keep moving forward. We’re trying to build a culture here, a winning culture. Losing is unacceptable.”
• Todd Dybas can be reached at tdybas@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.