Washington Wizards Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Wizards Won’t Immediately Re-Sign Jordan Bell

April 24th, 2021 at 8:25pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Wizards don’t plan to give Jordan Bell another contract right away, but he may not be finished with the team, tweets Chase Hughes of NBC Sports. A source tells Hughes that Bell made a positive impression during his time in Washington and has “a good chance to return at some point.”

Bell has already completed two 10-day contracts with the Wizards this season, which would normally make him ineligible for a third. However, he could technically receive another 10-day deal from the team since his first one was completed via the hardship provision before this year’s 10-day window had formally opened.

Bell got into two games during his most recent 10-day deal, which expired Friday night. He played 16 minutes last Saturday against the Pistons and one minute Friday against the Thunder.

The 26-year-old also signed for 10 days in January, appearing in three NBA games before being released and joining the Erie BayHawks of the G League. In total, Bell averaged 2.8 points and 3.8 rebounds in five games for Washington, playing 13.4 minutes per night.

The expiration of Bell’s contract means the Wizards have a roster opening if they decide to re-sign him before the season ends. Hughes’ source doesn’t expect the team to pursue a small forward, even though rookie Deni Avdija is out for the season with a right fibular hairline fracture.

Avdija's Passing Skills Were Underutilized

April 23rd, 2021 at 9:56pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Wizards never really found out what rookie Deni Avdija could add as a secondary playmaker in his rookie season, Fred Katz of The Athletic writes. Avdija’s rookie campaign was cut short by a right fibular hairline fracture.

Avdija didn’t have many ball-handling opportunities starting alongside Wizards stars Bradley Beal and Russell Westbrook. Avdija ascended in last year’s draft as a top-10 selection due to his passing skills, but Washington didn’t get a full picture of what the Israeli forward could produce long-term in that area as the team heads into a crucial offseason, Katz adds.

Deni Avdija Suffers Fracture In Right Ankle

April 22nd, 2021 at 7:11pm CST by Dana Gauruder

APRIL 22: An MRI has indicated that Avdija has suffered a right fibular hairline fracture, and will require 12 weeks — but no surgery — to recover, reports Ava Wallace of the Washington Post.

APRIL 21: Wizards rookie forward Deni Avdija suffered a hairline fracture in his right ankle, a source told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

X-rays revealed the injury. Avdija will have an MRI on Thursday, but his season is over, Wojnarowski adds. He’s not expected to require surgery.

Avdija went up for a shot and landed on a Golden State defender in Wednesday’s game. He was averaging 6.3 PPG and 4.9 RPG after being selected with the No. 9 overall pick last fall. He started 31 of 53 games in his rookie campaign.

The Israeli native’s injury is a serious blow to a team making a playoff push. Washington entered the game on a five-game winning streak.

Avdija had been starting a power forward and the Wizards will now look for bigs such as Daniel Gafford, Davis Bertans and Jordan Bell to pick up the slack.

Checking In On Open NBA Roster Spots

April 22nd, 2021 at 4:30pm CST by Luke Adams

It has been nearly a month since the NBA’s trade deadline passed, but we’ve still seen a flurry of transactional activity during the last four weeks, as teams have signed and waived players ahead of the postseason.

While some clubs have full rosters and seem unlikely to make any changes between now and the end of the regular season, that’s certainly not the case across the board.

With the help of our roster counts tracker, here’s our latest look at open roster spots around the league, as of April 22:

Teams with one or more open 15-man roster spots:

Golden State Warriors
Miami Heat
Minnesota Timberwolves
New Orleans Pelicans (2)
New York Knicks
Portland Trail Blazers
San Antonio Spurs

The Heat, Timberwolves, Knicks, and Spurs each have 14 players on standard contracts and one opening on their 15-man rosters. They’re all good bets to sign a 15th man before the season ends, either for developmental purposes or for added postseason depth.

The Warriors and Trail Blazers have 13 players apiece on standard deals, one on a 10-day contract – Gary Payton II for Golden State and Rondae Hollis-Jefferson for Portland – and one open spot. Hollis-Jefferson’s 10-day pact runs through next Tuesday, while Payton’s goes through Wednesday. Once those deals expire, the Warriors and Blazers will each have up to two weeks to get back to 14 players.

Since the NBA only allows teams to dip to 13 or fewer players for up to two weeks at a time, the Pelicans are very much on the clock. They’ve been at 13 players for the last nine days, since Isaiah Thomas‘ 10-day contract expired. The expectation is that New Orleans will sign draft-and-stash prospect Didi Louzada as a 14th man by early next week.

Teams whose 15-man rosters are full due to one or more 10-day contracts:

Cleveland Cavaliers (Mfiondu Kabengele)
Denver Nuggets (Austin Rivers)
Los Angeles Clippers (DeMarcus Cousins; Yogi Ferrell)
Memphis Grizzlies (Tim Frazier)
Oklahoma City Thunder (Justin Robinson)
Orlando Magic (Donta Hall; Robert Franks)
Philadelphia 76ers (Anthony Tolliver)
Sacramento Kings (Damian Jones)
Toronto Raptors (Freddie Gillespie)
Washington Wizards (Jordan Bell)

These 10 teams have full 15-man rosters as of today, but that might not last long. The dozen 10-day contracts listed here will begin expiring as soon as tonight (Hall), so if those players aren’t re-signed, the clubs will have roster openings.

The Nets will also fall into this group once they officially waive LaMarcus Aldridge and sign Mike James to a 10-day deal.

Teams with an open two-way contract slot:

Cleveland Cavaliers
Minnesota Timberwolves
Phoenix Suns
Toronto Raptors

The Suns have only carried a single two-way player all season long, so there’s no guarantee they’ll fill their second slot before the end of the regular season.

The other teams listed here are all better candidates to do so — Cleveland (Lamar Stevens) and Toronto (Yuta Watanabe) just recently promoted two-way players to their respective 15-man rosters, while Minnesota was carrying a pair of two-way players until waiving Ashton Hagans in February.

The Cavs reportedly intend to sign Jeremiah Martin to fill their two-way opening.

Gafford Thriving With His New Team

April 20th, 2021 at 7:31pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Daniel Gafford thought there was a “50-50” chance he could be dealt by the Bulls before the Wizards traded for him, according to Fred Katz of The Athletic.

He’s thriving thus far since joining the Wizards, averaging 11.4 PPG, 5.8 RPG and 2.0 BPG in 17.1 MPG through his first eight games.

The Wizards were not only interested in adding an athletic body in Gafford. They also liked his affordable contract — he has a non-guaranteed $1.78MM salary next season, a guarantee Washington will almost certainly pick up given his production.

This Season’s Disabled Player Exceptions Set To Expire

April 19th, 2021 at 10:00am CST by Luke Adams

The disabled player exceptions that teams have been granted throughout the 2020/21 season will expire if they go unused on Monday. April 19 is this year’s deadline to use or lose those exceptions.

As our breakdown shows, the Warriors, Nets, Heat, and Wizards each received a disabled player exception this season for injuries to Klay Thompson, Spencer Dinwiddie, Meyers Leonard, and Thomas Bryant, respectively. The Magic were given a pair of DPEs due to season-ending injuries suffered by Jonathan Isaac and Markelle Fultz.

None of those five teams have used their disabled player exceptions — the Heat forfeited theirs when they decided to trade Leonard to the Thunder in a deal for Trevor Ariza, but the rest are still available.

We go into more detail on how exactly disabled player exceptions work in our glossary entry on the subject. But essentially, a DPE gives a team the opportunity to add an injury replacement by either signing a player to a one-year contract, trading for a player in the final year of his contract, or placing a waiver claim on a player in the final year of his contract.

At this point in the season, any free agent on the open market typically commands no more than the minimum salary. And since the trade deadline has passed, it’s extremely unlikely that Golden State, Brooklyn, Washington, or Orlando will use their exceptions before the end of the day.

Theoretically, any one of those teams could use its DPE to place a waiver claim on Moritz Wagner‘s $2.16MM expiring contract, but he’ll likely end up just clearing waivers later today.

Wizards Taking On Russell Westbrook's Personality

April 18th, 2021 at 6:26pm CST by JD Shaw

The Wizards have taken on Russell Westbrook‘s personality this season, Chase Hughes of NBC Sports Washington explores. Westbrook is averaging a triple-double on the season — 21.9 points, 10.9 rebounds and 10.8 assists per game — but his primary focus remains helping Washington make the playoffs. “He’s just full of energy, ready to go, always a winning mentality,” teammate Bradley Beal said. “He’s going to play extremely hard every single time he touches the floor. It’s so surreal to be able to see a guy that plays as hard as he does still have that type of energy, still getting himself up and ready to go.”

Bradley Beal Discusses Staying With Wizards

April 17th, 2021 at 2:28pm CST by JD Shaw

Wizards star Bradley Beal feels somewhat vindicated by not requesting a trade earlier this season, Chase Hughes of NBC Sports Washington writes. “It speaks volumes,” Beal said. “It’s always tough because when my name was buzzing, that’s all I heard early in the year is, ‘Trade Beal, trade Beal.’ It wasn’t anything other than that. So, me knowing who I am and just sticking through it, that’s a testament to what we did as a team this year.”

Gafford May Start By End Of Year

April 15th, 2021 at 9:30pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

The Wizards will allow 2,100 fans (10% of crowd capacity) back into the Capital One Arena starting on April 21 when they host the Warriors, according to an official team press release. The Wizards will employ COVID-19 precautions as they let fans back onto their home floor for the first time this season, including “health screenings, mobile-only tickets, and seating pods.” There will be seven remaining regular season home games that will allow for fan attendance.
As he works his way back from an ankle injury, new Wizards center Daniel Gafford may earn the starting nod for Washington by the end of the year, according to Chase Hughes of NBC Sports Washington. “There are definitely possibilities of [him starting], but right now there are minutes restrictions,” head coach Scott Brooks indicated. Gafford is currently limited to about 16 minutes per night.

Wizards Sign Jordan Bell To 10-Day Contract

April 14th, 2021 at 1:42pm CST by Luke Adams

As expected, the Wizards have officially re-signed big man Jordan Bell to a 10-day contract, the team announced today in a press release.

Washington opened up a spot on its 15-man roster last week by releasing Jerome Robinson. At the time, reports indicated that the Wizards would fill that opening by bringing back Bell — nearly a week later, the deal is done.

Bell, 26, inked a 10-day contract with the Wizards in January, then played for the team’s temporary NBA G League affiliate, the Erie BayHawks, at the Walt Disney World bubble. He averaged 17.6 PPG, 9.1 RPG, and 2.1 BPG in seven NBAGL contests (27.4 MPG).

A report last month suggested the Wizards were eyeing Bell for a possible two-way deal if Garrison Mathews was promoted to the 15-man roster. But for now at least, it’ll be Bell who ends up on the 15-man squad, at least for the next 10 days.

Bell will earn $114,990 on his 10-day contract with Washington. The team will take on a $110,998 cap hit.