In the course of a week, the Washington Wizards have lost two valuable forwards named Trevor. As part of a three-team deal, the Wizards sent small forward Trevor Ariza to the Houston Rockets and gained an $8.5 million trade exception. Now, by choosing to let unrestricted free agent Trevor Booker walk and not extending him an offer, they’ve lost a decent backup power forward.
As first reported by Yahoo! Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski, Booker has agreed to a two-year, $10 million deal with the Utah Jazz. The Wizards chose not to extend Booker a one-year, $4.7 million qualifying offer and make him a restricted free agent, so it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise they weren’t willing to compete with Utah’s two year, $10 million offer.
Booker, who started in 45 games last year for the Wizards, averaged 6.8 points and 5.3 rebounds per game while shooting 55 percent from the floor, staying pretty consistent with his career averages of 6.4 points and 5.1 rebounds per game while shooting 53 percent from the floor. He’s a good glue guy off the bench and a solid rebounder as well. Booker was drafted 23rd overall in the 2010 NBA Draft but has played all four of his NBA seasons in Washington.
There’s definitely another Wizards move coming, but pending what that actually is, I would have thought about meeting Booker’s price.
— Mike Prada. (PRAY-duh) (@MikePradaNBA) July 15, 2014
The Wizards might miss his production inside in limited minutes, but Washington already has Nene and recently added Paul Pierce – who played a lot of power forward with the Brooklyn Nets last season – as a way of making Booker’s departure a little less painful. By not overpaying for Trevor Ariza, however, Otto Porter Jr. might need to be ready to step up off the bench behind Pierce in a way he was fully incapable of in his rookie season.
As reported by Woj, the move to make up for Booker’s departure appears to be adding Kris Humphries via a sign-and-trade:
Kris Humphries has agreed to a three-year, $13M deal with Washington, league source tells Yahoo Sports. Team option on third year.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 15, 2014
For the Jazz, this move puts Utah at 11 players with guaranteed contracts next season and it certainly crowds a frontcourt that already includes Derrick Favors, Enes Kanter, the newly signed Steve Novak and Rudy Gobert. However, Booker is a decent bench addition and should give Utah good minutes as a reserve until Gobert is ready.