While not making any of the major moves of the NBA offseason, the Washington Wizards have not been inactive.
On Saturday the
Wizards acquired power forward Davis Bertans in a trade with the San Antonio Spurs, according to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski.
Bertans, a 26-year-old out of Latvia, has played three seasons in the NBA with the Spurs after coming over from Europe where he was a three-time Serbian League champion with Partizan in Belgrade.
In 76 games in 2018-19 with San Antonio, he averaged 8 points and 3.5 rebounds per game while playing 21.5 minutes. Bertans' best attribute his good range for his size, he shot 42.9 percent from behind the arc last season and has the nickname "Latvian Laser."
The trade is the second move the Wizards have made in the last 24 hours to bolster their three-point shooting after acquiring
CJ Miles from Memphis for
Dwight Howard. Miles is a career 35.9 percent three-point shooter.
Washington acquired Bertans by using the $8.6 million trade exception they created when they
dealt Markieff Morris before the trade deadline in February.
Washington is right at the luxury tax with the addition of Davis Bertans but have the flexibility of $8.9M in non-guaranteed contracts- including the $5.7M contract of Jonathon Simmons. There is $1M guaranteed with the balance becoming protected if not waived by July 8.
— Bobby Marks (@BobbyMarks42)
July 6, 2019 Bertans, with a $7M expiring deal, will go into the traded player exception ($8.6M) that the Wizards had for Markieff Morris after dealing him to OKC at the trade deadline.
— David Aldridge (@davidaldridgedc)
July 6, 2019 After trading Otto Porter and letting Bobby Portis walk, the Wizards had a major need for three-point shooting. Davis Bertans and CJ Miles will help fix that. Bertans, in particular. 40.4% career 3PT shooter.
— Chase Hughes (@ChaseHughesNBCS)
July 6, 2019 Bertans is just 26 and shot a robust 43 percent on threes last season for the Spurs, in his third year in San Antonio. Legit 6-10. Not a great rebounder, but he can flat-out shoot. He’s a good pickup for Washington-if the Wizards can re-sign him after this season.
— David Aldridge (@davidaldridgedc)
July 6, 2019 Follow @BenKrimmel and @1067theFan on Twitter.
