Last offseason’s Wizards-Pelicans deal has aged well for Washington in the big picture, but there’s still one piece that lingers: Saddiq Bey.
The Wizards sent Jordan Poole and Bey to New Orleans for CJ McCollum and Kelly Olynyk, with Olynyk later moved on to the San Antonio Spurs. The broader payoff has been clear.
The move opened up plenty of future cap space, and a couple of months later it helped set up Washington’s trade for Trae Young. With McCollum productive enough to help make that follow-up move possible, and Poole at times slipping completely out of the rotation with the Pelicans, Washington can comfortably say it came out ahead.
Still, Bey is the one name that complicates the story.
Overlooked on a Pelicans team that had a rough season, Bey quietly turned in the best year of his career and was arguably their most reliable player. He finished with 17.7 points, 5.6 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game while shooting 45.1/36.7/84.1. In that same trade, he was viewed as little more than a throw-in, yet he ended up posting a better season than Poole.
Bey’s path over the last couple of years has been unusual. He was a useful wing for a playoff-level Atlanta Hawks team before tearing his ACL in the middle of the 2023-24 season.
That injury ended his year, and because he was in a contract year, he never returned to Atlanta. Instead, he signed a three-year, $20 million deal with the Wizards.
He never played a minute for Washington. Instead, he was included in the trade that sent him to New Orleans, where his strong season earned him a new three-year, $55.5 million contract.
And that’s where the regret comes in. Bey’s size at 6-foot-8 and 215 pounds would give Washington another sturdy forward option right now, and he’s physical enough to slide to power forward if needed.
That would matter if Anthony Davis misses time, something recent history suggests is a real possibility. Bey would also step in immediately as the sixth man, and if he repeated last season’s production, he’d at least enter the Sixth Man of the Year conversation.
Washington’s current backup wing group includes Bilal Coulibaly, who struggles offensively, Khris Middleton, who is productive but getting older, and Will Riley, who is still very young. Compared with that mix, Bey would stand out clearly.
The Wizards won the trade overall, no doubt about it. But if Bey were still around, they’d look even stronger in the Eastern Conference.
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