WASHINGTON — Jonas Valančiūnas has provided everything the Washington Wizards have asked for since he unexpectedly signed with the team in July.
As the Feb. 6 trade deadline nears, though, the team will have to decide if it wants to keep his size, experience and offensive punch around, or use him to bring in future assets that could help accelerate Washington’s rebuild.
League sources told The Athletic the Wizards will consider dealing the 32-year-old center before the trade deadline if the right deal comes along. But finding a trade that serves the team’s long-term goals will be challenging.
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Washington’s front office would want a draft pick (or picks) that would appreciably move the team’s rebuild forward — not, for instance, late second-round picks. But it will be hard to find a suitor, at least before the usual warm-up to trade talks in the final week or so before the deadline, who’d be willing to go much higher.
Any group of teams that would have interest in Valančiūnas almost certainly would be limited to those in win-now mode. Because those suitors would be attempting to add depth rather than subtract quality depth, it would be highly unlikely any trade partner would be willing to give up a top-seven rotation player.
The best way to conceptualize the kind of return the Wizards would want is with a sliding scale.
If, for example, a team would send Washington a highly paid player on a multi-year contract — a contract that would hamper the team’s future payroll flexibility — Washington almost certainly would seek a first-round pick.
The Wizards’ 2023 trade in which they sent Chris Paul to the Golden State Warriors for Jordan Poole, Patrick Baldwin Jr., Ryan Rollins, a 2027 second-round pick and a protected 2030 first-round pick could serve as a guide for any Valančiūnas deal in which the Wizards take back a multi-year contract. That first-round pick incoming via Golden State is protected 1 through 20; if a first-round pick is not conveyed in 2030, the Wizards would receive the Warriors’ second-round pick in 2030.
If any incoming contract in a Valančiūnas’ deal would not impair the Wizards’ long-term payroll flexibility, then more than one early second-round pick might do the trick. One league source, whose team is not currently involved with the Wizards in discussions about Valančiūnas, believes that two second-rounders will wind up being the maximum Washington can get for him.
The Wizards signed Valančiūnas to a three-year, $30.3 million contract in July. The modest investment by modern NBA standards “was worth a shot,” a league source said. And Valančiūnas’s salary for the final season in the deal, 2026-27, is non-guaranteed.
Wizards officials said they signed Valančiūnas to provide a top-notch veteran example to the team’s young players, a group that includes rookies Alex Sarr, Bub Carrington and Kyshawn George and second-year guard-forward Bilal Coulibaly. Team officials also wanted Valančiūnas to match up against the league’s most physical centers and, in the process, protect Sarr — whose body is still filling out — from bruising matchups. And team officials also wanted Valančiūnas’ scoring and rebounding to help the young nucleus.
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Valančiūnas has provided all of that. In a career-low 19.9 minutes per game entering Monday, he had averaged 11.7 points, 8.1 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game. According to Cleaning the Glass, an advanced analytics database that omits stats compiled in garbage time, Valančiūnas also ranks among the league’s most efficient big men in defensive-rebounding percentage, offensive-rebounding percentage and assist percentage.
Jonas Valanciunas (right) entered Monday averaging an efficient 11.7 points, 8.1 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game. (Reggie Hildred / Imagn Images)
In December, Valančiūnas showed his value in a head-to-head matchup with the league’s best player, Nikola Jokić. The Joker was at his absolute best, scoring a career-high 56 points, along with 16 rebounds and eight assists. So, it’s not like Valančiūnas or any of Washington’s other big men slowed him down.
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But Valančiūnas held his own, with 20 points, 12 rebounds, five blocks and five assists, and the Wizards broke their franchise record-tying 16-game losing streak, in a shocking victory over the 2023 NBA champions.
“I had a couple of really good wrestling moves down there with Jonas,” Jokić said with a chuckle afterward. “I think Jonas’s wrestling, it’s always interesting. I always talk to him normally, and it’s always a little bit physical. I mean, it should be. We’re big boys from Europe. We’re kind of used to being in the contact. I think that’s how it’s supposed to be. Good rivalry.”
Still, many league observers were surprised when the Wizards first signed Valančiūnas, believing that the Wizards signed him to eventually trade for draft assets.
To be sure, Valančiūnas is limited. He doesn’t stretch the floor, obviously (he was 5 of 23 from deep before Washington’s game Monday against Minnesota), and isn’t a guy who finishes above the rim, or protects it at the other end.
But Washington’s depth at the big-man spots behind Sarr would thin if Valančiūnas is traded. Marvin Bagley III sprained the MCL in his right knee on Dec. 23 and is expected to miss an extended stretch of games. The Wizards also have veteran Richaun Holmes available for spot minutes up front.
If Valančiūnas is frustrated that his playing time is a career low, he hasn’t shown it publicly.
When asked by The Athletic whether it’s been difficult to play more sparingly than he’s accustomed to, he answered in trademark self-deprecating fashion,
“It’s good on my body,” he said, laughing. “You always got to see the positives too, you know? It’s good on my body, and I’m not tired. I’m ready to go. Anytime coach calls my number, I’m here to do whatever. I signed up for that.”
Valančiūnas knows trade rumors will swirl over the next several weeks.
How will he deal with that?
“Shut my phone off,” he joked, before he got serious. “Talk with my people, not outside people. People I know. To be honest, it’s a part of the deal. You see what’s out there. You expect everything and you just do your job. That doesn’t change. Whatever happens, it will happen.
“I just come in every day, work. Every game, I play 100 percent. That’s all I can do. That’s all I do. It’s above me. I have no control in that.”
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(Top photo of Jonas Valančiūnas and Precious Achiuwa: Reggie Hildred / Imagn Images)
