Getty DeAndre Jordan and Kevin Durant during a December 13 game against the Washington Wizards.
After four seasons and change with the Brooklyn Nets, point guard Spencer Dinwiddie is moving on, headed to the Washington Wizards by way of a sign-and-trade.
In return, Sean Marks didn’t necessarily get value back on what was once considered the club’s top asset.
Washington will send Brooklyn a second-round pick in 2024, and the right to swap second-round picks in 2025.
Whether that’s due to Dinwiddie’s recent ACL tear, or perhaps the dried-up point guard market, is unclear.
But that’s certainly not the return Nets fans envisioned when Marks and the front office kept the point guard through the trade deadline last season.
It’s possible that in a very close alternate reality, where the Brooklyn Nets offered up more, that the return for Spencer Dinwiddie looks a lot different from the Washington Wizards.
One report has surfaced regarding what Sean Marks was “unwilling” to part with, in Wednesday’s blockbuster.
Winfield: Brooklyn Was Unwilling to Part with Jordan
In his latest reporting for the New York Daily News, Kristian Winfield broke down the negotiations behind the Spencer Dinwiddie deal.
One thing he noted, was a potential reluctance from the Brooklyn Nets to include center DeAndre Jordan:
The Nets were unwilling to part ways with DeAndre Jordan as part of the deals despite his position fixed at the end of the rotation, league sources tell The News.
Winfield cited the camaraderie between the two-time rebounding champ, Kevin Durant, and Kyrie Irving:
Jordan signed a four-year deal worth $40 million in the same offseason the Nets signed both Irving and Kevin Durant. He is on the hook for $20 million more over the next two seasons, but his bond with the Brooklyn Big 3 is too strong for a deal to consummate, per source.
It’s interesting to think that Durant and Irving, both having won championships but clearly with eyes on another, wouldn’t want to part ways with someone who didn’t touch the floor in the postseason.
But as Winfield mentions, it was those three who came together those two years ago.
Perhaps they don’t see an outcome where the Brooklyn Nets win the championship, and they’re not all a part of it.
Nets Asked Wizards for Deni Avdija
Another interesting nugget from Kristian Winfield’s latest and the general reporting over this trade is the Brooklyn Nets’ request for Deni Avdija to be included in the deal:
The Nets tried to pry Deni Advija, the Wizards’ No. 9 overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft, as part of Dinwiddie’s sign-and-trade, according to several sources familiar with the matter.
The ninth pick from the 2019 NBA Draft, he’s coming off of a season-ending right fibular hairline fracture.
Avdija averaged 6.3 points, 4.9 rebounds, and 1.2 assists last year, his first in the NBA. ‘
Would the Nets truly be interested in taking on a second-year player?
I suppose it’s never too early to be thinking about the future.
Even more notable, Sean Marks wasn’t interested in a trio of former Los Angeles Lakers’ role players, who’d found their way to the Washington Wizards by way of the Russell Westbrook blockbuster:
The Nets were uninterested in taking back Kuzma, Pope or Harrell, and ultimately did not, despite Kuzma and Pope’s standing as 2020 NBA champions alongside LeBron James in Los Angeles.
One positive: Brooklyn will create an $11.4-million trade exception after this deal is completed.
That will be important to keep in mind once the season starts and the trade market regenerates.
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