One of the key questions about the original version of the Anthony Davis trade agreed to on June 15 was when it would be completed. Unless the Lakers could wait until July 30 to make the deal using the salary of this year's No. 4 pick, doing so with the players involved would have required them to cut into their cap space to take back Davis' salary.
After the New Orleans Pelicans traded the No. 4 pick on to the Atlanta Hawks, it became clear that those two teams weren't going to wait on the Lakers to get their draft picks signed and playing in the NBA summer league in Las Vegas (which begins July 5). So the onus was on the Lakers to find a way to make the Davis trade without using cap space. Enter the Wizards, who agreed to take back three players so the Lakers can send out enough to match Davis' salary after he agreed to waive his $4 million trade bonus.
After grading the first version of the trade here, let's look at how the Lakers and Wizards did in this updated version of the deal.
The deal | Original trade grades
Pelicans get: Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram, Josh Hart, 2019 No. 4 pick, 2021 first-rounder protected Nos. 9-30 (becomes unprotected in 2022), first-round swap rights in 2023, 2024 first-round pick with the option to defer to 2025, cash
Lakers get: Anthony Davis
Wizards get: Moritz Wagner, Isaac Bonga, Jemerrio Jones, 2020 second-round pick
Get more trade grades for every deal here.
Los Angeles Lakers: A
This expanded version forces the Lakers to trade away every player under contract for 2019-20 besides LeBron James and Kyle Kuzma. That will leave them with essentially a blank slate entering free agency: three players, max-level cap space and the looming deadline of July 6 to get it all spent.
Even if they split their money up rather than signing a third star to a max deal, sacrificing Wagner, Bonga and Jones (plus the extra second-round pick) was certainly worth it for the Lakers. Their futures are too uncertain and player development too distant a goal now for the Lakers to stand in the way of an extra $5 million in cap space (possibly $9 million if Davis would have been unwilling to waive his trade bonus without the carrot of the Lakers having max cap space).
Getting the deal done now allows the Lakers to pursue Kawhi Leonard and other max free agents without having to worry about clearing the necessary cap space, and if they had to do so after getting a commitment from a free agent, the price almost certainly would have been higher than just a second-round pick.
Still, it means the Lakers now have nothing save Kuzma and Davis to show for their past drafts, and it leaves them without a second-round pick until 2023. The Lakers continue to limit their ability to add to the roster going forward.
Washington Wizards: B-
Considering the Wizards didn't get much else for the trouble of being included in this deal, they must value the 2018 draft picks they're getting.
Wagner going in the first round was a bit of a surprise. A bone bruise in his left knee suffered during summer league sidelined Wagner for training camp and set back his rookie campaign. He played just 446 minutes last season, the bulk of that (293) coming in March and April after the Lakers' playoff hopes were extinguished. Wagner's long-term success in the league as a stretch 5 will be tied to becoming a legitimate NBA 3-point threat, and the 29% he shot beyond the arc as a rookie was discouraging in that regard.
Bonga, the NBA's youngest player last season after turning 19 in November, is unmolded clay at this point. He didn't see much action with the Lakers, even after they were eliminated, playing 31 games for the team's G League affiliate. At that level, Bonga flashed some 3-point range (34%) but was an inefficient scorer and had more turnovers than assists. So he's far away from translating his potential into becoming a solid point forward.
Of the three players Washington got, I'm actually most excited about Jones, an undrafted rookie who spent last year with the South Bay Lakers before being called up late in the season. The 6-foot-5 Jones ranked in the top 10 in the G League in defensive rebound percentage while also accumulating steals and blocks at strong rates. He acquitted himself with his energy in a six-game cameo with the Lakers, and though his non-shooting is a major concern (Jones made just 15 3-pointers all season in the G League), I think he could carve out an NBA role similar to that of previous Lakers call-up David Nwaba.
It's still unclear whether the Wizards will keep Jones, whose salary had to be guaranteed at $200,000 to facilitate this deal. Either way, it won't cost Washington much in terms of salary. Bonga, Jones and Wagner will make a combined $5 million next season, and none of them have guaranteed money in 2020-21. The question is mostly whether the Wizards could have done anything better with the roster spots, and with just five players under guaranteed contract before this trade, the answer is probably no.