If you want to defend the Washington Wizards‘ acquisition of Trae Young, as I did, you can point to the fact that they haven’t turned over the franchise to him. It didn’t cost the Wizards all that much to get Young, and, crucially, they didn’t sign him to an extension as part of the deal. Young has a $49 million player option next season; assuming he picks it up, Washington can see how he fits with its core before even talking to him about sticking around beyond that.
Without an extension, this is a low-risk move. If Young stunts the development of the up-and-coming Wizards rather than helping them grow, the team won’t be stuck with him. There will be an opportunity cost — Washington would have had a bunch of extra cap space had it simply let CJ McCollum’s contract come off the books — but, given that it still has a plenty of financial flexibility, it’s not that big of a deal.
If an extension is coming, though, the calculus changes. And it turns out that might be the case.
ESPN’s Shams Charania, in the news story about the trade, reported Wednesday that the Wizards were “not expected” to discuss an extension with Young right away. Two days later, ESPN’s Tim Bontemps and Brian Windhorst reported that “the strong expectation around the league” is that there will be an extension, likening the acquisition to the Toronto Raptors‘ trade for Brandon Ingram at last year’s trade deadline. Washington is reportedly hoping that its new point guard can do for its young players what Chris Paul did for the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2019-20 and what Fred VanVleet did for the Houston Rockets a couple of years ago.
Generally speaking, I like this deal less for the Wizards if they sign Young to an extension. It means this is less let’s take a flier on a primary playmaker and more we need this to work. But the devil is in the details. There’s a massive difference, for example, between extending him on a near-max contract and extending him for, say, $30 million annually.
According to the Dallas Hoops Journal’s Grant Afseth, Washington is interested in signing Young to a three-year extension worth around $120 million, which is exactly the deal that Ingram got from Toronto.
If they agree to something like that, I’d have questions: Does either side get an option on Year 3? Is it ascending, descending or a flat $40 million per season? I wouldn’t love it for the Wizards, particularly if it’s ascending and there’s no team option.
To be clear, though, any extension Young signs would begin next season. If the alternative is Young picking up his player option and making $49 million in 2026-27, then it effectively adds only two years, not three. A deal in the $140 million range would mean that Young will be paid less next season than he would otherwise. The question for Washington is whether this is a good investment for 2027-28 and 2028-29. It could be, especially if his jumper returns to form, but if I were in the front office, I’d push for a team option.
Young is on the Wizards’ roster because his former team accepted that he had little trade value on his current contract. If they sign him to an extension, they need to be sure that they’re not setting themselves up to be in the same position down the road.
