Just as everyone expected, the Utah Jazz and Washington Wizards have been the two biggest buyers at the deadline. The rebuilding Wizards first surprised everyone when they acquired Trae Young from the Atlanta Hawks. But they recently followed that up with an even more shocking move, landing a 32-year-old, injury-prone Anthony Davis in a blockbuster with the Dallas Mavericks.
Here is the deal in full, per ESPN's Shams Charania:
Wizards receive: Anthony Davis, Jaden Hardy, D'Angelo Russell and Dante Exum
Mavericks receive: Khris Middleton, AJ Johnson, Malaki Branham, Marvin Bagley III, 2 first-round picks and 3 second-round picks
Deni Avdija didn't fit the Wizards' age curve, but Anthony Davis does?
So what does this have to do with the Portland Trail Blazers? Well, the rebuilding Wizards are surprisingly accelerating their rebuild by going star hunting at the deadline. They have an intriguing potential starting lineup of Trae Young, Tre Johnson, [2026 first-round pick], Anthony Davis, and Alex Sarr.
But they still need to address their wings, and it's almost like they could use someone like Deni Avdija?
That's why this trade is hilarious from the Blazers standpoint. Wizards President Michael Winger was adamant that trading away Avdija for two first-round picks wasn't a mistake because he didn't fit their age curve.
“No, it was not a mistake," Winger said. "We’re all very happy for Deni. We saw Deni as a very high-level ascending player…but no, we did it for the reasons we said then, which was to take us back a couple of years so we could reset the roster and so that everybody was on the same age curve and Deni’s ahead of that.”
But Avdija was just 23 years old at the time the Wizards traded him away. Winger said he wanted to take the roster back a few years, but it's been 1.5 seasons since Avdija has been gone. During that time, he's already become an All-Star for the Blazers, and the Wizards have managed to land one of the most injury-prone stars in the game.
The Wizards front office has contradicted itself by bringing in these 27 and 32-year-old stars shortly after moving on from Avdija. The Blazers have benefited from this mistake to a greater extent than anyone initially anticipated, with Avdija taking his game to yet another level. But that came at the expense of the Wizards, who are chasing aging stars after claiming youth was the reason they traded away a rising one.