It is said that the Washington Wizards have successfully cleared the team s salary space to the extreme through a series of trading operations this offseason.

According to the latest report by TA's famous reporter Fred Katz, the Washington Wizards have successfully cleared the team's salary space to the extreme through a series of trading operations this offseason. The Wizards are expected to have more than $100 million in cap space in the summer of 2025, a figure that will make them one of the most competitive teams in the free market.

The three highest-paid players in the Wizards are currently - Chris Middleton (33.3 million), CJ McCollum (33.3 million), and Marcus Smart (19.3 million), all of which are contracts that expire in 2025. This means that by next summer, the Wizards can easily free up nearly $86 million in space.

More importantly, the Wizards also have multiple team options for young players, including Johnny Davis, Patrick Baldwin, etc. If these players perform poorly in the 2024-25 season, the Wizards can directly give up the execution team option and further expand their salary space. Not only that, by the 2026-27 season, the contracts of only five players on the Wizards are fully guaranteed, namely:

Cory Kispert

Alexander Thal

Trey Johnson

Will Riley

Dillon Jones

The Wizards are one of the most flexible teams in the NBA. They can decide whether to continue to train young players or spend money on the free market to sign superstars based on the progress of the reconstruction in the next two years.

Wizards general manager Will Dawkins is obviously implementing a clear long-term plan:

2024-25 season: Continue to train young players, and may play bad again to fight for high picks, summer 2025: Use more than 100 million salary space to chase big-name stars in the free market 2026 and beyond: Based on young cores such as Saar, and with signed stars to attack the playoffs, this "bitter first and sweet" reconstruction strategy is quite similar to the "believement process" of the 76ers back then. The difference is that Wizards have a cleaner salary scale and have more room for operation. This wave of operations by the Wizards is a textbook case of NBA salary management. From a team that is at the bottom all year round to arriving at the biggest free market funder, Washington fans may soon see the day when the team returns to the playoffs.