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Otto Porter Jr. Offer Sheet Matched by Washington Wizards
As expected, the Washington Wizards matched the Brooklyn Nets' four-year, $106 million max offer sheet for Otto Porter Jr. The team announced the news on Thursday.
Candace Buckner of the Washington Post first reported the news on July 8.
Shortly after Porter signed the Nets' offer sheet July 4, The Vertical's Chris Mannix reported the Wizards intended to match it.
Brooklyn painted Washington into a corner by making Porter such a lucrative offer, and the Wizards didn't have a choice if they wanted to keep their young core together.
As a result, Washington is headed for luxury-tax territory.
Specifically, ESPN.com's Bobby Marks noted the Wizards have $123 million and $121 million in guaranteed deals on the books for the next two seasons and that those numbers are "likely" to increase.
Financial considerations aside, Washington should be thrilled to have Porter back.
The 2013 No. 3 overall pick emerged in 2015-16 as one of the game's brighter two-way players, and he played even better last season.
In 80 contests during the 2016-17 campaign, Porter averaged a career-high 13.4 points on 51.6 percent shooting from the field and 43.4 percent shooting from three. He was one of two players in the NBA to average at least 13 points while shooting better than 50 percent from the field and 40 percent from three.
Porter also flashed his versatility by playing 77 percent of his minutes at small forward and 23 percent at power forward in smaller five-man units.
Now that he's sticking with the Wizards, Porter should continue to operate as an evolving third option behind John Wall and Bradley Beal as Washington sets its sights on the Eastern Conference Finals.
Stats courtesy of Basketball Reference.