The Washington Wizards have a major Anthony Davis decision looming, and it doesn’t sound like one they can afford to let drift.
Davis can become an unrestricted free agent after this season, and he also has a $62.7 million player option for the 2027-28 campaign. Washington and Davis are waiting until the regular season to talk extension, which leaves the franchise with a familiar kind of pressure: pay a huge number, or risk watching a future Hall of Famer walk away for nothing.
That risk is not small. The Wizards gave up two first-round draft picks and three second-rounders to get Davis, a package that wasn’t massive by star-trade standards but still represented a real investment in a ten-time All-Star.
They also passed on trade interest over the summer, which only makes the current wait look more complicated. Now the front office has to answer the biggest question of all - whether Davis is truly a long-term fit, and if so, what he is worth.
The money is where this gets tricky. Davis wants a major contract, but Washington is in no position to hand out something like a four-year, $275 million max extension.
He remains elite when healthy, but the injury history hangs over everything. He played only 20 games last season and has averaged just 49.6 games per year over the last eight.
Betting on more than 50 games from the 33-year-old feels like a dangerous game.
And the Wizards already have other financial baggage to manage. They overpaid for Trae Young, and in the second apron era, every dollar matters. That makes a massive second contract for Davis a tough sell, even if the team clearly values him and plans to give him a chance to play the four.
Davis, for his part, has leverage. He can simply skip an extension this season and head toward free agency next summer, where he could get paid. Washington wants this to work, but the price tag could end up being the difference between a smart move and an expensive problem.
That’s why the trade deadline now looms as the obvious pressure point. If the Wizards can’t reach an extension with Davis, moving him in February would let them recover some value and send him somewhere he might prefer. Washington could have explored that path this summer, and if Davis is healthy at the deadline, interest should be there again.
For now, though, the uncertainty is already hanging over the season. The Wizards are trying to make a leap and push back toward the postseason, but that gets a lot harder when one of the team’s biggest names is playing without clarity on his future.
Washington has a simple choice to make: extend Davis or trade him. The longer they wait, the bigger the problem gets.
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