Despite having a squad that’s now good enough to possibly make the playoffs, the Washington Wizards are interested in adding a bit more size to their bench, putting an eye on DeJuan Blair, who last played for the San Antonio Spurs.
Blair remains unsigned after four seasons with the Spurs, after the first three years being quite successful for a guy with a very bleak future in the NBA according to scouts and “experts”, and a fourth season in which his playing time fell drastically due to the success of Boris Diaw and Tiago Splitter, while Blair himself remains a useful yet undersized and limited offensively big man, averaging only 5.4 points per game last season, and barely featuring in games that matter in the postseason.
The Wizards do have Nene and Emeka Okafor as their starters in the frontcourt, but they’re both over 30, with Nene being more than slightly injury prone. They already have an undersized big-man in Kevin Séraphin, who averaged 9.1 points and 4.4 rebounds as a backup to both big men, and now the Wizards are trying to add a similar player to give their starting big men a bit more rest and for their potentially playoff-bound team a bit more depth.
The Wizards are looking for some kind of sign-and-trade deal with the Spurs for Blair, who made $1.05 million last season, but the Spurs don’t see any pieces that the Wizards are willing to trade that might bring them any help. John Wall, Bradley Beal, Nene, Okafor, Otto Porter and Martell Webster aren’t for sale. The rest don’t make it worthwhile doing a trade for, or at least that’s what the Spurs are signaling at the moment.
An interesting thing with the Wizards is somewhat of countering comments from head coach Randy Wittman, who spoke about needing more players on the roster, but mostly referring to a stretch ‘4’ type of player, while Wizards President Ernie Grunfeld spoke about having 14 guys on the roster, and probably not looking for anyone else to join the team.