Report: Marcin Gortat Traded to Clippers; Wizards Receive Austin Rivers

The Washington Wizards agreed to trade center Marcin Gortat to the Los Angeles Clippers on Tuesday in exchange for guard Austin Rivers, according to ESPN.com's Adrian Wojnarowski. 

Gortat has one year and $13.6 million remaining on his contract. News of his arrival in Southern California coincides with DeAndre Jordan's ability to opt out of his contract and test free agency. 

Rivers, meanwhile, opted into his $12.7 million player option last week. He will be an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2019. 

Gortat, 34, averaged 8.4 points and 7.6 rebounds while shooting 51.8 percent from the field in his 11th NBA season and had continued to operate as one of John Wall's trusted pick-and-roll partners when both were healthy.  

However, Gortat and Wall engaged in something of a rift prior to last season's trade deadline when the Polish Hammer referred to the Wizards' victory over the Toronto Raptors on Feb. 1, which came with Wall sidelined, as a "Great 'team' victory." 

Wall later told NBC Sports Washington he thought the tweet was a "joke." 

"If you want to say 'team win' and put it in exclamation points or 'everybody eats' and all that. I'm one of the top point guards in the league that passes the ball more than anybody. I hear a lot of times I pass too much sometimes. But like I said, that really doesn't bother me. I know what I do for my team. I know what I bring every night. Like I said, if any guys have a problem with me they can talk to me face-to-face as a man. And if you can't do that, then I lose a lot of respect for you." 

Wall also told ESPN's SportsCenter he thought it was funny Gortat was talking because "he gets the most assists from me and the most spoon-fed baskets ever."

With that tension hanging over the franchise and Gortat coming off a year that saw him play the smallest allotment of minutes per game (25.3) since he arrived in Washington, the timing for a split seemed right. 

Now afforded a chance to start anew in L.A., Gortat will look to anchor the Clippers' pick-and-roll defense while serving as a quality rim-runner who can offer supplementary buckets without necessitating a heavy volume of touches to make an impact before he hits free agency next summer. 

Rivers, meanwhile, is coming off a career year in which he averaged 15.1 points on 42.4 percent shooting from the field, including 37.8 percent from three, in 33.7 minutes per game. 

A role that large won't be awaiting the 25-year-old in Washington, but if Rivers can continue to knock down open threes at a solid clip, he'll offer some nice relief to a Wizards team that ranked 16th in bench scoring (35.6 points per game) last season. 

"Acquiring Austin gives us another versatile, experienced player who provides scoring and playmaking," Wizards President Ernie Grunfeld said in a release. "He is coming off a career year and his ability to create offense for himself and others will help our second unit and allow us to play a variety of lineups throughout the season."