The Washington Wizards have traded former first-round pick Troy Brown Jr. and center Mo Wagner to the Chicago Bulls in exchange for power forward Daniel Gafford and small forward Chandler Hutchison, according to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski.
With the NBA's trade deadline arriving Thursday at 3 p.m., Wizards star Bradley Beal offered cryptic foreshadowing on Twitter just minutes before the move.
After enjoying a five-game win streak in mid-February, the Wizards have completely fallen apart, dropping 10 of 14 games since, plummeting to 13th place in the Eastern Conference and making change seem inevitable.
After taking a step forward in his second season, Brown — selected 15th overall by Washington in 2018 — lost significant playing time this season, averaging 12.1 fewer minutes per game in 2020-21 than the season prior. In nearly the same amount of playing time as his rookie season, he's averaging fewer points, scoring 4.3 per game this season as compared to 4.8 in 2018-19, making clear he'd regressed with his reduced role.
Wagner has also stumbled in his second season as a Wizard. After being traded by the Lakers to Washington in July 2019, Wagner averaged 8.7 points, 4.9 rebounds and 0.4 blocks in 18.6 minutes per game in 2019-20. This season, the center's averaging 7.1 points, 2.9 rebounds and 0.3 blocks in 15 minutes.
A second-round pick in 2019 (38th overall), Gafford stands at 6-foot-10, 234 pounds and has played center and power forward for the Bulls. He's currently averaging 4.7 points, 3.3 rebounds and 1.1 blocks in 12.4 minutes per game, which has translated well on a per-36 minute basis.
Hutchison was the 22nd overall pick out of Boise State in 2018 and stands at 6-foot-6, 210 pounds. He's averaging 1.9 points, 2.9 rebounds and 0.6 assists across 9.1 minutes per game this season, although he's only played in seven games in 2020-21 since returning from an early season injury. Hutchison suffered an acute injury to a sesamoid bone in his right foot on Jan. 23, according to the Bulls, causing him to miss a significant amount of time.
UPDATE: Mo Wagner has since been dealt again, going from the Bulls to the Boston Celtics. Chicago gets center Daniel Theis in exchange.
