Washington Wizards set to acquire DeJuan Blair in sign-and-trade with Dallas Mavericks
By Sam Richmond
The Washington Wizards are finalizing a sign-and-trade with the Dallas Mavericks that will send big man DeJuan Blair to Washington, according to J. Michael of CSN Washington.
"The front office stayed busy and is in the process of finalizing a deal that will bring DeJuan Blair on board, CSNWashington.com has confirmed through a two people with knowledge of the situation, to bolster what now appears to be one of the NBA’s better benches.The Wizards had been in discussions to acquire Blair earlier in the week from the Dallas Mavericks, but details had to be hashed out to make it work and stay out of the luxury tax.The details aren’t clear yet, but the Wizards have trade exceptions of $2.1 million and $1.2 million that could be used to help facilitate the deal with Dallas which also had salary cap issues to work out on its end."
The Wizards have done fairly well for themselves since losing Trevor Ariza to the Houston Rockets. Washington has added Paul Pierce, Kris Humphries and will now bring in Blair.
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With franchise cornerstones like John Wall, Bradley Beal and Marcin Gortat already in place, the Wizards are shaping up to be one of the better teams in the Eastern Conference.
Blair is far from a game-changing player, but he gives Washington another solid contributor off of the bench. He averaged 6.4 points (53.4 percent shooting from the floor) and 4.7 rebounds in 15.6 minutes per game with the Mavericks last season.
Blair was a second-round pick of the San Antonio Spurs in 2009.