Decompression battle! The Wizards first off-season shot!

Before the draft, the Wizards who held the sixth pick were unwilling to let it go, and they had already shown signs of trading early, but spreading out the trading chips in the Wizards' hands and putting aside some of the young rookies who have yet to be polished, there are very few favorable chips left in their hands. After a serious injury, Middleton came to the Wizards in the second half of the 2024-25 season. Due to the injury, he was seriously inadequate in his condition. He naturally chose to execute the contract of 33 million next season. However, compared with his current competitive state and physical hidden dangers, and then contacting the overly large contract, it is still difficult for the Wizards to trade him in the future. Unless other teams favor him, the Wizards have the chance to buy him out.

However, at present, the probability of most powerful teams recruiting him is still quite low. The contract expires in another year, so naturally there is no need for the Wizards to force the transaction for the sake of the transaction.

The same is true for Smart. Although it was reported early that the Wizards were interested in trading him, considering his injury risks, he is no longer the defensive lock he used to be, and it is naturally even more difficult to trade smoothly. Unless there is an absolutely favorable transaction, there is no need to trade for the sake of the transaction, and there is nothing wrong with staying in the team. Even though your physical condition is not good, your defensive awareness is still online. Staying at the Wizards to guide the backward newcomers, it is a good thing to improve the team's defensive awareness. Under the statistics, Jordan Poole is the only one who has the chance to trade back chips. Poole, who has almost reached a career high in offensive data, has averaged 20.5 points, 4.5 assists and 3 rebounds per game this season, and has a three-point shooting percentage of 37.8%. It is the only valuable trading chip in the Wizards.

But the key difficulty lies in salary matching. Poole currently has a two-year contract of 65 million, but judging from his 2024-25 season data, such a contract is actually not very difficult to trade. However, after the Wizards inquired about the Spurs, 76ers, Jazz and other teams, the Wizards were all rejected by the opponent, and the final first shot could only start from the perspective of salary space.

Wizards got: McCollum, Olynick, the second round pick from the Bulls in 2027;

Pelicans got: Poole, Sadiq Bay, and the 40th pick in 2025.

Poole's transaction came earlier than expected, but it did not involve the first round of changes in this year's hand in the Wizards. In exchange for McCollum and Olynick both have the last year contracts of the 2025-26 season. In addition, Smart, Holmes, Middleton and others, the Wizards' salary space released in the summer vacation of 2026 can basically reach 100 million, and they will soon become the team with the largest salary space in the offseason of 2026, and have the opportunity to trade in the free market once.

But from the perspective of trading, it is not just a win-win situation between the Wizards and the Pelicans, but more like a forced choice for both sides to settle for the second best. It is difficult for the Wizards to get the opportunity to trade upward in this draft by Poole, and it is basically difficult to have too many trading opportunities in this year's draft. It is better to look forward to next year.

The Pelicans are in a difficult situation. Although Zion's contract is quite flexible, the next three seasons will be non-guaranteed contracts. It is necessary to decide whether to execute it before July 15, and maybe he can be given up directly. But if you choose to deal with it in the 2025 offseason, the Pelicans still do not have enough salary space to compete in the free market, at least this year is not the time to make this choice.

It is naturally not good to simply give up Zion and make him air. It is better to keep it for half a season to see if he and his new teammate Poole can have new reactions. It will not be too late to deal with it if he plays betrayed by then, and it will not be too late to give up directly next year.

In addition, after this deal, the Pelicans lineup began to become younger, sending away the two 33-year-old veterans. Poole can make up for Murray's tactical position to at least be on standby until next February. If Poole can maintain his Wizards' performance, he may also activate Zion so that his appearance will be a little better next season.

In addition, if there is no subsequent transaction, I still hope that the Wizards can keep Olynik. Although his tactical status in the Pelicans is not high, referring to his career performance, this is also a high-quality combat power worthy of attention from the Wizards.

When it comes to Olynick, this player is definitely a very terrifying existence for the Wizards in 2017. At that time, he was still in the Celtics and had a very obvious advantage in the penalty area in the game against the Wizards. What's even more terrifying is that he has the ability to open up space and became the biggest pain point that the Wizards could not solve at the time; and his inside combination with Horford completely suppressed the Wizards' penalty area and directly closed the Wizards' goal to the Eastern Finals.

In his future career, Olynick has relied on his special advantages such as high pick-and-roll cooperation and off-ball screen running, which has greatly improved his tactical status, especially the Jazz, who have played badly in recent years. Such advantages have reached the peak, which can break through, shoot, and execute high pick-and-roll.

Considering these advantages, the current newcomer Sal in the Wizards happens to urgently need a mentor like Olynik to teach.

Combining the technical characteristics of these two new and old players, Sal, like Olynick, is good at executing high pick-and-roll screens, and also has the ability to run without the ball after pick-and-roll, taking into account the outside shooting. However, compared with the experienced Olynick, the young Sal still needs to be strengthened in this regard.

The biggest difference between Olynick and Thrall is that his lower limb strength confrontation ability is one of the key reasons why he can play the blue-collar role at the basket. Enhancing confrontation is also Sal's most important training topic in the offseason. If Olynick can stay with the Wizards smoothly, although it will not have a qualitative change in the team's combat power, it will still have many benefits for the newcomer Thrall.