After getting off to a blistering 10-3 start to the season out of the gate, the 2021/2022 Washington Wizards quickly began to fizzle out as the season progressed, eventually finishing with a disappointing record of 35-47 overall and missing the playoffs.
With an offseason looming ahead, and with the Wizards core for next season seemingly revolving around the trio of Bradley Beal, Kristapz Porzingis, and Kyle Kuzma, one player I want to focus on from the Wizards roster, is Kentavious Caldwell-Pope.
Looking at things from a salary cap perspective, Caldwell-Pope is the third-highest paid player on the Wizards roster by AAV, and the Wizards are already finding themselves to have a logjam of wing players outside of Caldwell-Pope in the form of 2021 first-round draft pick Corey Kispert and Kuzma.
Washington might feel that it could be in their best interest to try and use Pope as a trade asset to find an upgrade from Ish Smith, who is currently the only point guard on the Wizards roster for next season (albeit, Smith's $4 million contract next season is non-guaranteed).
The 29-year-old Pope has made a living off primarily being a solid 3-and-D wing player, shooting 39% from the three-point range this season. The 2021/2022 season marked the fifth straight season that Pope's three-point % hovered around the 38-40% mark, providing unequivocal proof that Pope is a reliable three-point option.
In addition, Pope took over 400 three-point attempts this season [406], which is the first time since 2018/2019 that Pope has attempted over 400 three-pointers in a single season. Pope's volume of shooting 5.3 three-pointers per game this season proves to a contending that Pope can handle taking a high volume of three-point attempts, even as he approaches his 30s next season.
Pope also demonstrated solid shooting from other areas of the court last season, shooting 65% on shots at the rim (60th percentile), 46% on shot attempts outside of 14 ft away from the basket (80th percentile), and a respectable 53.3% EFG% (52nd percentile).
While Pope is still a solid defender, he's never quite been as good as he was once was when he started his career with the Detroit Pistons out of the University of Georgia.
Thus, it begs the question moving forward about what is Pope's value to a team that he could potentially end up in a trade to –– is he a one-year rental option or is he a guy that you would give a multi-year extension?
Heading into the offseason, the Wizards seemingly (like every year) have a choice on what direction the pendulum will swing for their front office this summer –– trade players like Beal and Pope and finally begin their rebuild or try and find a way to make the play-in and hope for the best.
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