The NBA’s extension deadline for fourth-year players came and passed on Halloween, ending without a new deal for many—including Otto Porter. But that doesn’t mean the Washington Wizards don’t want to keep him. They’ve made it clear that they do.
As general manager Ernie Grunfeld said, per CSN Mid-Atlantic’s J. Michael:
“We had conversations but we want Otto here long-term,” Grunfeld told CSNmidatlantic.com on Wednesday, before the regular-season home opener with the Toronto Raptors. “We like Otto. We really like what he brings to the table. He’s a really good player that meshes well with John (Wall) and Brad (Beal) who like to have the ball in their hands. Otto cuts and spots up and he does a lot of little things. He makes a lot of winning plays that don’t show up in the boxscore. Our intention is in the offeseason is to have Otto signed and have him here long-term.”
The absence of an extension for Porter isn’t damning to his future in Washington. Far from it.
This is a business decision. Extensions only make sense for teams nowadays if they’re getting some sort of discount—if they’re signing a player for less than he’d receive on the restricted free agency market. Think along the lines of Victor Oladipo’s contract extension with the Oklahoma City Thunder. He definitely would have been maxed out over the summer. Locking him up now saved the Thunder more than $20 million, before any potential luxury taxes, over the next four years.
If Porter was looking for near-max money, the Wizards might as well just wait until he gets an offer sheet in restricted free agency, kind of like they did with Bradley Beal, though they skipped the middle man in that scenario and just outright offered him a max deal.
This way, the Wizards have another entire season to evaluate Porter against his asking price and market value, all the while limiting his cap hold. Instead of him already being on the books for, say, $20 million next season, his cap hold is now $11.8 million until he puts pen to paper on a new deal. The Wizards get to work with that number as they explore the free-agent market, amid another salary-cap boon, and then get to go over the cap to re-sign Porter once the rest of the roster is set.
Though the Wizards won’t have a ton of spending power at their disposal once the cap rises, every little bit counts, leaving them more flexible. So this move, forgive me in advance, makes plenty of cents.
