Report: Gary Neal agrees to one-year, $2.1 million deal with Wizards

Washington has done pretty well for itself this summer despite Paul Pierce leaving for the Clippers (which he might regret right about now).

They already had Otto Porter — who is ready for a step into the spotlight — reached a deal with solid veteran Jared Dudley, and they drafted for the potential future on the wing with Kelly Oubre. They can keep playing smaller at the four (as they did with Pierce in the playoffs), and they will have depth.

Now they’ve added more help on the wing with veteran shooter Gary Neal, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports.

Free agent guard Gary Neal has agreed to a one-year, $2.1M deal with Washington, league source tells Yahoo.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 3, 2015

Washington uses its bi-annual exception on Neal, holding onto its full mid-level exception to offer West.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 3, 2015

J. Michael at CSNWashington.com explains how they filled a real need with this signing — and in a way that doesn’t hurt plans down the line.

Neal fills a glaring hole behind Bradley Beal at shooting guard, giving the Wizards a 6-4 career 38.1% shooter from three-point range. The deal also meets a key requirement for the Wizards: short-term and no impact on the salary cap for 2016 when they want maximum money available to pursue Kevin Durant.

The Wizards still have their mid-level exception to use. More than that, they have been shopping Nene around the league and as other teams miss out on their free agent targets those talks may gain more traction.