Nets Trade Bojan Bogdanovic To Wizards For First-Round Pick, Two Players

Finally, we have another NBA trade. The Brooklyn Nets continued their quest to get rid of anything resembling NBA talent on Wednesday, as they unloaded Bojan Bogdanovic. The Nets sent Bogdanovic to the Washington Wizards along with Chris McCullough, in exchange for Andrew Nicholson, Marcus Thornton and a 2017 first-round pick.

The Wizards were thought to be in contention to acquire Lou Williams, but the Los Angeles Lakers decided to send him to the Houston Rockets on Tuesday. They’ll settle for Bogdanovich, who has started 54 games this year and is averaging 14.2 poinds, 3.6 rebounds and 1.6 assists per contest. The 27-year-old Croatian was the 31st pick in the 2011 NBA Draft by the Miami Heat, and was then traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves and eventually the Nets. He has played his entire three-year NBA career in Brooklyn.

The other three players involved in the trade appear to be nothing more than salary ballast to make things work, the real prize for the Nets is the first-round pick.

Nicholson has played in just 28 games this season and is averaging 8.3 minutes and 2.5 points per contest. Meanwhile, Thornton has played in 33 games (with one start) and is averaging 17.4 minutes and 6.6 points per game. Thornton will be a free agent after the season, while Nicholson has three years and nearly $20 million left on his contract. The St. Bonaventure product may actually see the floor for the Nets, but I wouldn’t expect him to suddenly become an impact player.

Brooklyn now holds two picks in the 2017 NBA Draft, unfortunately they’ll almost surely be stuck swapping their own for Boston’s due to the massive Kevin Garnett/Paul Pierce trade from 2013. So now they’ll almost certainly own two non-lottery picks despite having the league’s worst record.