The Deal
Wizards get: Guard Trey Burke
Jazz get: 2021 second-round pick
Washington Wizards: B
So far in free agency, backup point guards like D.J. Augustin (four years, $29 million from the Orlando Magic) and Ish Smith (three years, $18 million from the Detroit Pistons) have been commanding multi-year deals at around the value of the mid-level exception.
Compared to those kind of deals, I'd much rather have Burke on his: $3.4 million in the final year of his rookie contract, after which the Wizards can either try to re-sign Burke as a restricted free agent or walk away.
The risk, of course, is that Burke isn't good enough to back up John Wall. He couldn't hold on to a reserve role in Utah after the Jazz added Shelvin Mack at last year's trade deadline, playing behind Mack and Raul Neto.
But Burke did make strides last year, improving his efficiency (a career-high .507 true shooting percentage) and increasing his usage rate (to 25.3 percent, also a career high). We'd expect Burke to continue improving next season at age 24.
Burke doesn't have to be particularly efficient to help a Washington offense that had little hope of scoring with Wall on the bench last season. According to NBA.com/Stats, the Wizards' offensive rating without Wall was 100.4 points per 100 possessions, which would have ranked 26th in the league.
Utah Jazz: B-
After acquiring George Hill last week, the Jazz had five point guards on the roster, leaving Burke as the odd man out. Utah was also dealing with a roster crunch with 13 players on guaranteed contracts once Joe Johnson is signed, plus three more with non-guaranteed deals and three second-round picks. So moving Burke was a priority.
The only question you could raise here is whether the Jazz might have gotten a second-round pick sooner than 2021 by waiting out free agency and seeing if someone got desperate for a backup point guard. But I understand if Utah didn't want to risk getting stuck with Burke if nobody was interested at that point.