Earlier this week, Michael Lee of the Washington Post reported that the Wizards turned down a potential trade with the Thunder that would have landed them James Harden but they reportedly turned it down, which led to many people wondering why? Read more after the jump.
The cost in terms of assets the Wizards would have to give up to Oklahoma City was relatively low —Bradley Beal and Chris Singleton were the names to be sent our of town.
The holdup on the part of the Wizards was reportedly the cost of Harden’s next contract — a max deal that would have required an investment of $80 million in guaranteed salary. It was a commitment that ownership, for whatever reason, was simply unwilling to make.
Wizards owner Ted Leonsis, however, came out and said that this wasn’t the case. While he didn’t mention Harden’s name specifically, he wanted to make it clear, in a post on his personal blog, that finances were not an issue.
I usually do not comment on articles that are premised on statements from anonymous sources, let alone an unauthorized anonymous source. Once you respond to a story like that you are open to having to respond to those kinds of stories all of the time. In this case, however, I need to make an exception.
I would like to debunk though a statement and notion that originated in The Washington Post that a potential trade would have put our team in the luxury tax and thus we “turned down” a deal because we were “unwilling to commit” financially. That is simply not true. First, we would not have gone into the luxury tax – that is simple math. Second, economics were not a factor.
Which still leaves the question why unanswered. It could be that the Wizards didn’t believe Harden was the franchise player they needed but still clearly something needs to be done here. The Wizards are currently 3-17 at the bottom of the Eastern Conference granted they are without star guard John Wall due to injury. Still he can’t resurrect the team by himself.
