WASHINGTON — The Washington Wizards have chosen not to exercise their rookie-scale team options for next season on guard Johnny Davis and forward Patrick Baldwin Jr., a league source told The Athletic, setting the stage for Davis and Baldwin to become unrestricted free agents during the summer of 2025.
The Wizards still will be eligible to re-sign Davis and Baldwin in unrestricted free agency, but Davis and Baldwin will have the freedom to join any team that wants to sign either of them.
Davis, 22, has endured a disappointing start to his NBA career. Drafted 10th overall in 2022 by Washington when Tommy Sheppard was the team’s general manager, Davis has struggled to earn a spot in the team’s rotation. He has averaged just four points and 13.1 minutes in 80 games across his two-plus NBA seasons and currently sits behind rookie guard Bub Carrington, rookie wing Kyshawn George and fourth-year swingman Corey Kispert on the depth chart.
Davis was a consensus first-team All-American as a sophomore at the University of Wisconsin and was named the men’s Big Ten Player of the Year, the Lute Olson National Player of the Year and the Jerry West Shooting Guard of the Year.
If the Wizards had exercised their team option on Davis for 2025-26, he would have been guaranteed a salary of $6.7 million that season.
Baldwin, who will turn 22 in mid-November, was picked 28th overall in 2022 by Golden State. In 2023, the Warriors traded Jordan Poole, Ryan Rollins, Baldwin, a 2030 first-round pick and a 2027 second-round pick to the Wizards for Chris Paul.
Baldwin played in 38 games last season for Washington and has appeared in two of Washington’s three games so far this season.
If the Wizards had exercised their team option Baldwin for 2025-26, he would have been guaranteed a salary of $4.4 million that season.
NBA clubs have until Thursday to exercise their third-year team options on 2023 first-round picks and their fourth-year team options on 2022 first-round picks.
On Tuesday afternoon, in an expected move, the Wizards exercised their third-year team option on wing/forward Bilal Coulibaly for the 2025-26 season. Coulibaly, the seventh pick in 2023, is a key part of Washington’s rebuild.
Required reading
- Bilal Coulibaly: What NBA scouts are saying about the Wizards’ youngster
- Bub Carrington: What NBA scouts are saying about the Wizards rookie
- Wizards, Corey Kispert agree to 4-year, $54 million extension: Source
(Top photo of Johnny Davis: Reggie Hildred / USA Today)
