Details emerge on pick protections and money saved in Jodie Meeks trade

The dust has settled from the Wizards’ trade on Monday, and now we have some more details on what Washington is saving as part of the Jodie Meeks deal, and what it cost them to do it.

ESPN’s Bobby Marks is reporting the deal will save Washington over $7 million in salary and luxury tax payments, Second round picks that sell for cash considerations usually go for far less than $7 million, so at least Washington is getting good bang for their buck here.

But what about the pick itself? Real GM is reporting the Wizards aren’t sending the Bucks a new pick as part of the deal. Instead, they modified the protections on the 2020 pick Washington owes Milwaukee from the Jared Dudley trade. The pick was top-55 protected in the initial deal, now it’s top-45 protected. If Washington keeps the pick in 2020, Milwaukee will get an unprotected second round pick in 2022.

Reworking the protection like this helps the Wizards hedge their bets a little bit for the next two seasons. If they’re still a playoff team in 2020, they’re only giving away a second rounder in the back half of the draft. If they’re out of the mix for whatever reason, they’ll be able to use that pick to add another contributor.

The catch is, if the Wizards aren’t playoff contenders in 2020, there’s a good chance it’s because they’re embarking on a rebuild that could take some time. If so, they could wind up giving up a high second round pick to get off luxury tax money on a team that didn’t have much of a shelf life.

To complicate things further, the Wizards already traded away their second round picks in 2019 (Kelly Oubre trade) and 2021 (Trey Burke trade). As of now, they only control one of their next four second round picks.