The Wizards’ seemingly eternal search for a backup point guard behind John Wall continues.
With Ramon Sessions and Garrett Temple free agents, Washington is turning to Trey Burke.
Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports:
The Utah Jazz are finalizing a deal to send guard Trey Burke to the Washington Wizards for a future pick, league sources tell @TheVertical.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 3, 2016
Wizards will send second-round pick to Utah for Burke, who had fallen out of Jazz's future plans. Great reset button on Burke's young career
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 3, 2016
David Aldridge of NBA.com:
Second-round pick Wizards will send to Utah for Trey Burke is in 2021, per source.
— David Aldridge (@davidaldridgedc) July 3, 2016
The Jazz had been trying to trade Burke for a while. With George Hill, Dante Exum, Shelvin Mack and Raul Neto, Utah is plenty deep at point guard.
Washington is buying low, and the Jazz are happy to get whatever they can before the final year of Burke’s rookie-scale contract. They don’t have minutes available to determine whether he’s a late bloomer.
Burke has honed in on scoring or distributing at various points in his career, rarely integrating the skills or doing either effectively. His limited size and athleticism holds him back on defense, so this level of offensive output won’t cut it.
Still, Burke was the No. 9 pick just three years ago for a reason. He showed tremendous pick-and-roll vision at Michigan, and his underwhelming 3-point shooting remains a head-scratcher. Point guards tend to develop late, and there’s still a chance he becomes a solid contributor.
The odds are against it, but the Wizards didn’t pay much, and they get someone who -- even if he doesn’t improve -- shouldn’t be terrible at a position of need.