Report: Wizards turning attention toward Ryan Anderson in free agency
The Wizards want to get one of the best shooters on the market
By
Zach Harper
•
2 min read
The Washington Wizards may not be getting Kevin Durant this offseason (unless he's been playing us this entire time), but they can still grab an incredible shooter in free agency. Ryan Anderson is one of the top shooters in this league and will be commanding big money and big attention this summer. If the Wizards want to sign him away from the New Orleans Pelicans and keep him from joining a different team, they'll have to pony up the cash for him.
According to J. Michael of CSN Mid-Atlantic, that's exactly what the Wizards are planning on doing. Anderson could end up making anywhere in the $17 million range per season with his next deal and the Wizards are going to be aggressive toward acquiring him this summer.
Now that Kevin Durant has dropped from the wish list for the Wizards with free agency set to open at the end of the week, Ryan Anderson is their next priority, multiple league sources tell CSNmidatlantic.com on Monday, and they'll make an aggressive move in hopes of securing the three-point shooting forward.
The Wizards will have a lot of competition for Anderson's services. He may command in the range of $17 million in the open market, one league GM projected in an interview with CSN recently. At that number, however, it could be problematic for the Wizards' front office.
The Wizards could have more than $30 million in cap space to play with this summer. They have John Wall, Marcin Gortat, Markieff Morris, Otto Porter, and Kelly Oubre under contract. Bradley Beal will be a restricted free agent and has a $14.2 million cap hold. Jarell Eddie and Drew Gooden have non-guaranteed deals for next season. They can renounce the rights to free agents Nene, Ramon Sessions, and Jared Dudley. That leaves the team pretty thin and they'd have to fill in with cheaper options, but Anderson adds quite a bit of shooting to Scott Brooks' attack.
The question though is how Anderson fits with Morris on the team. One of those guys has to come off the bench. As the Oklahoma City Thunder showed this season, you can live with a player making $17 million coming off the bench like they did with Enes Kanter. But that player has to accept the role. Would Anderson be signing on to be a starter or is he fine being a Sixth Man type of scorer? If he wants to be a starter, is Morris going to accept coming off the bench or would you go the potentially even more disastrous route of starting Morris at the starting small forward position?
These are answers they'll likely have from all sides before coming to an agreement but it's not just an easy addition to the roster outright. The Wizards need depth, so adding Anderson for huge money can deter getting that depth. But with the way prices are going to be this offseason, maybe that's just what you have to accept and deal with when constructing your roster.
