Spencer Dinwiddie is a Wizard, and it took the biggest trade in NBA history to make him one.
The five-team trade — which included the Nets, Wizards, Lakers, Pacers and Spurs — ties the most complex in league annals. The Nets will get a second-round pick from Washington and a draft swap in the sign-and-trade, as well as a hefty $11.5 million trade exception to use down the road.
Dinwiddie celebrated in typically on-brand fashion, sharing a Harry Potter meme proclaiming himself a wizard.
The point guard — who along with Joe Harris had been the last Net still standing from GM Sean Marks’ first full season in 2016-17 — will get a three-year, $62 million deal, and a starting job in the Wizards backcourt next to All-Star Bradley Beal.
The finalization of this long-delayed deal was first reported by the Athletic and confirmed by The Post. The Nets get a 2024 second-round pick from Washington, and the rights to swap a second-rounder the next year with either the Wizards or Golden State, according to ESPN.
There is still a possibility of some minor piece — a “touch,” in NBA parlance — going between the Nets and Spurs, according to Bleacher Report. But it already matches the five-team Antoine Walker 2005 megadeal. A sign-and-trade was the most effective route for all parties concerned.
With both the Wizards’ Russell Westbrook trade and the Nets’ Landry Shamet deal both not official until Friday, it was serving as a de facto deadline to loop Dinwiddie’s deal as a multi-team trade. With Dinwiddie and his reps bunkered down in Los Angeles working, they got this done well in advance.
Dinwiddie’s deal was the most the Wizards could pay him, looping him into the Lakers trade that brought back Kyle Kuzma and Montrezl Harrell.
After opting out of the final $12.3 million year of his Nets deal — and seeking nearly double that as an unrestricted free agent — Dinwiddie drew interest from the likes of New Orleans and the Knicks. But the Knicks made their point guard bed by landing veteran Kemba Walker, and Dinwiddie focused on Washington.
The Nets had rejected an offer of Kuzma and Harrell, and after shopping out-of-favor center DeAndre Jordan all around the league and finding no takers tried to get the Wizards to take his two years and $19.7 million remaining. That went nowhere, as did their request for Israeli lottery pick Deni Avdija and a future first- or second-round pick, first reported by BetMGM Tonight.
But with Friday’s deadline looming, the Nets and Wizards found common ground, And Dinwiddie — who’d been seeking a four-year, $85 million deal like the ones given to Malcolm Brogdon and Fred VanVleet — ended up getting a similar annual salary, albeit for one fewer year.
Dinwiddie has been rehabbing in Los Angeles from a partially ruptured ACL suffered in the third game of the season. Dinwiddie, who has been cleared to play, averaged a career-high 20.6 points in the 2019-20 season. The guard apparently has gotten the seal of approval from Beal, and will replace Westbrook in the Wizards backcourt.
The Nets and owner Joe Tsai are looking at a staggering $121.8 million luxury-tax bill. The record is $90.6 million by Mikhail Prokhorov’s Nets in 2013-14, although Golden State is on pace to actually pay $185 million, according to former Nets assistant GM Bobby Marks, now with ESPN.
Mike D’Antoni, who stepped down as a Nets assistant under former protégé Steve Nash, is taking a consultant role in New Orleans for head coach Willie Green. D’Antoni was with Pelicans Executive VP of Basketball Operations David Griffin for years with the Suns.