The Wizards made just one trade before the NBA Trade Deadline Thursday afternoon, a sort-of three-way deal with Dallas and OKC that sends Daniel Gafford to the Mavs for Richaun Holmes and a 2024 first-round pick – a pick that is ‘the second-least favorable of the Thunder’s first-round picks’ according to Marc Stein.
Dallas swapped 2028 first-rounders with the Thunder to get that asset, and as the Thunder have three first-rounders in this summer’s draft – Houston, Utah, and the Clippers’ picks, not even one of their own – the Wiz would get whichever one falls in the middle of the pack.
And that’s pretty damn good, say G&D.
“There’s no trade the Wizards could make that would bother me, let me just say that,” Grant said. “I like Gafford fine, the player they got back is fairly irrelevant, and there’s draft-pick compensation as well and I‘ll take whatever – but this sounds like it might actually be a lottery pick!”
“Trying to find the specific here, the language used is very confusing,” Danny, not good at words, replied. “Holmes is irrelevant, but it sounds like OKC’s picks, their best one is Houston’s, which is No. 10 right now, and second is Utah’s, which would be 13th.”
That’s kind of fluid given more picks could move around, and it will take the official release to figure everything out, but ANY first-round pick for Gafford? Sign them up.
“If we believe what Marc Stein says, if that’s a late lottery pick? All due respect to Daniel Gafford, because nothing matters with who is on the team now anyway, get all the picks you can!” Grant said. “As high as possible, that’s the whole point of what we’re doing while watching this terrible team.”
“The way it sounds here is they’re almost passengers while other teams are acquiring bigger players,” Danny said, “but what you can do is be a facilitator to get some assets. This is what should be happening, and I’m thrilled about it.”