The Wizards are "just one of three NBA teams that have never paid" the luxury tax, but the club "could become a taxpaying team if the market for restricted free agent Otto Porter Jr. demands it," according to Candace Buckner of the WASHINGTON POST. The '17-18 salary cap is projected at $99M "with the luxury tax line stretching" to $119M. Excluding free agents, the Wizards have 12 players "under contract with the team salary close" to $96M. Wizards President Ernie Grunfeld last week briefly addressed paying the tax, and he said, "We'll see how everything goes. If it's the right player, I don't think we have a problem going over it." Buckner notes if Porter does "sign a max contract offer sheet, the question remains how much more are the Wizards willing to spend not only to hold steady with the roster but also improve?" (WASHINGTON POST, 6/27). THE UNDEFEATED's Marc Spears reports Wizards G John Wall also is recruiting Pacers F Paul George "in hopes that George will push for a trade to the nation's capital." Wall: "I know his ultimate goal of where he wants to be. I'm trying to see if we can make something happen." A source said that the Wizards have "had trade conversations with the Pacers." The source added that the Pacers have "been patient and that no deal with the Wizards is close at the moment" (ESPN.com, 6/27).
G-UNIT: In DC, Deron Snyder writes the Wizards’ G League franchise will "play in a minor-league system that’s approaching the gold standard" of MLB. Only the Nuggets, Pelicans and Trail Blazers now "lack their own G League affiliate set to begin" in '18, though the Pelicans are "weighing proposals from prospective host cities and plan to join the Wizards in debuting a farm team 17 months from now." When the unnamed Wizards team begins play in '18-19, it will be based "less than eight miles" from Verizon Center. With the NBA’s new two-way contracts, a couple of G League players "might shoot hoops against prospects in Southeast one night, and go against All-Stars in Chinatown the next." Geography alone "won’t create the proximity." It will be "ideological as well as psychological, a symbiotic relationship between parent organization and its petri dish" (WASHINGTON TIMES, 6/27).
