The Washington Wizards on Sunday tipped off trade deadline season early for the second year in a row, announcing a move that sends forwards Mike Muscala and Danilo Gallinari to the Detroit Pistons for big man Marvin Bagley III, wing Isaiah Livers and second-round draft picks in 2025 and 2026.
The trade allows Monumental Basketball President Michael Winger and Wizards General Manager Will Dawkins to bolster the frontcourt behind starting center Daniel Gafford and to take swings on two players not yet in their prime without saddling the Wizards with burdensome contracts as they work through the early stages of a rebuild.
“Marvin and Isaiah are young players with positional size, high character and a competitive nature who will have the opportunity to further their development within our system and build on the positives we’ve seen from them,” Dawkins said in a statement. “We are excited to welcome them while also adding draft picks, allowing us to enhance our current roster and continue to position ourselves for the future.”
Bagley, 6-foot-10 and 235 pounds, has one year remaining on his contract worth $12.5 million in 2024-25. Although the 24-year-old hasn’t lived up to his billing after being drafted No. 2 overall by the Sacramento Kings in 2018, the Wizards view him as a young player with untapped potential and the positional versatility to back up Gafford or Kyle Kuzma.
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Bagley, whom the Pistons acquired in February 2022, struggled this season as Detroit juggled an overload of centers. He is averaging 10.2 points on 59.1 percent shooting and a career-low 4.5 rebounds in 18.4 minutes behind Jalen Duren and Isaiah Stewart while sharing time with James Wiseman, the No. 2 pick in 2020.
Livers, a 6-7, 230-pound forward, is in the final year of a three-year rookie deal worth $4.45 million after being selected in the second round of the 2021 draft. The 25-year-old, a teammate of Jordan Poole’s at Michigan, is averaging 5.0 points on 34.5 percent shooting and 2.1 rebounds in 20.4 minutes.
Muscala, 32, and Gallinari, 35, are also on expiring contracts.
“Danilo and Mike lived up to their well-established reputations as true professionals while providing meaningful contributions on the court during their time with us,” Dawkins said. “We’re appreciative that our young players were able to learn from them and we wish them the best moving forward.”
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A little less than a year ago, under a different management group, the Wizards traded 2019 first-round pick Rui Hachimura to the Los Angeles Lakers.
The Pistons (3-36) and Wizards (7-31), the worst teams in the Eastern Conference, will meet Monday at Capital One Arena. Bagley and Livers are unlikely to be available in part because of the 3 p.m. tip-off.
While the player swap portion of the deal was straightforward, the draft picks Washington received are anything but because of how they have changed hands via multiple trades over the years.
The 2025 second-round draft pick is the less favorable of:
- The more favorable of Golden State’s and Washington’s own second-round pick.
- Detroit’s second-round pick, as long as it does not fall between Nos. 56 and 60.
The 2026 second-round draft pick is the less favorable of:
- The more favorable of Minnesota’s and New York’s second-round picks.
- The more favorable of New Orleans’s and Portland’s second-round picks.
No matter how complex the trade’s terms are, the rebuilding Wizards will always be happy to stockpile draft picks.
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