Why are vets Khris Middleton and CJ McCollum on the rebuilding Wizards?
The expected characteristics for a rebuilding squad make the two exceptions — Khris Middleton and CJ McCollum — even more conspicuous. The 33-year-olds are each set to cost more than $30 million against the Wizards' cap next season. Nobody else is older than 26 or will make more than $14 million.
Middleton is a three-time all-star and 2021 NBA champion who ranks 22nd among active players in career earnings, per Spotrac. McCollum, who's four slots behind, has averaged at least 20 points per game every season since the 2015-16 season.
While they have the most name recognition on the Wizards, they're also among the least important for the team's long-term future. So why are they in D.C., spending among the last years of impressive careers on a team that will likely finish near the bottom of the standings?
Part of it — the part the Wizards brass emphasizes — is that both can be positive influences for the organization's young talent. The veterans' heady play could provide on-court stability for an occasionally disorganized team. Middleton and McCollum are also well-respected for their professionalism and could serve as role models to learn from and emulate.
But the veterans were not the driving forces that led the Wizards to make the trades that brought them here. Middleton and McCollum were ancillary components in the deals, attached because of the league's salary-cap rules and an imbalance between their compensation and production.
Middleton came to Washington at last season's trade deadline in the Kyle Kuzma deal. The Milwaukee Bucks had a payroll above the collective bargaining agreement's second apron, meaning they could not acquire more salary than they sent out and could not aggregate multiple outgoing salaries to match or exceed the incoming amount.
That meant Milwaukee needed to send out a single player who made at least Kuzma's approximately $23 million salary. Just four players — Middleton, Brook Lopez, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard — fit that criteria.
The Bucks chose to move Middleton, who has faded since his all-star days while struggling to stay healthy in recent years. He hasn't played at least 60 games in a season since 2021-22, and he missed the first 21 games of the 2024-25 season after undergoing surgery on both ankles.
Bucks General Manager Jon Horst called the trade 'the hardest thing transactionally that I've ever done,' but said he believed it 'positioned ourselves to have a better run this year.'
The Wizards, in the early stages of a rebuild, were happy to take Middleton's contract in the swap, but that wasn't the prize. That would be guard AJ Johnson, a 2024 first-round pick who fits the organization's timetable. Washington also acquired a 2028 first-round pick swap.
Another benefit for Washington: Middleton's deal expires after next season while Kuzma's runs through 2027, bringing the Wizards closer to having cap space.
That desire for financial flexibility also prompted the move for McCollum, which a person with knowledge of the deal described as the next phase of the Bradley Beal trade.
Washington's front office, led by President Michael Winger and General Manager Will Dawkins, inherited Beal's supermax extension, which had about a $50 million average annual salary and ran through 2027.
The front office's first move in the summer of 2023 was trading Beal to the Phoenix Suns for a return that included guard Chris Paul. The Wizards promptly traded Paul to the Golden State Warriors for a package that included Jordan Poole and a top-20 protected 2030 first-round pick.
Poole's deal averages $32 million per season and runs through 2027. The 26-year-old guard rebuilt his value with a strong 2024-25 season, recording career-highs in points and three-point percentage. Meanwhile, McCollum played just 56 games for the New Orleans Pelicans.
The Pelicans sought an upgrade in the backcourt and believe they found it in Poole, swapping the two guards as part of a late June trade.
Pelicans executive vice president of basketball operations Joe Dumars told Andscape he acquired Poole because he 'has a skill set that matches the most dynamic guards in this league. We've also seen him be a part of a championship team and contribute at a high level.'
Washington made the deal in large part because McCollum's contract expires at the end of the upcoming season. It also saw McCollum as someone who could play more off the ball than Poole, opening up opportunity for the Wizards' young talent to run the offense.
The Wizards could have more than $100 million in cap space after next season when Middleton's and McCollum's contracts expire. What they do with that room depends on how the season goes — but a very real path is that Washington continues to take on expensive contracts from teams needing cap relief and acquires more draft assets as sweeteners.
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