{"id":204168,"date":"2026-07-07T21:54:35","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T01:54:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=204168"},"modified":"2026-07-07T21:54:35","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T01:54:35","slug":"khris-middleton-trade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2026\/07\/07\/khris-middleton-trade\/","title":{"rendered":"The Washington Wizards Reunite With Khris Middleton Via Sign-And-Trade"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Washington Wizards have entered the trade market once again as NBA Free Agency presses on. <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2026\/07\/04\/deandre-ayton-wizards\/\" target=\"_self\">After acquiring<\/a> <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/a\/aytonde01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">DeAndre Ayton<\/a> from the Los Angeles Lakers, the Wizards will be bringing back veteran forward <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/m\/middlkh01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Khris Middleton<\/a> from the Dallas Mavericks. <a  href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ShamsCharania\/status\/2074654061014507865\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">According to ESPN&#8217;s Shams Charania<\/a>, Middleton will be heading to Washington on a new three-year, $17.6 million contract, while <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/r\/russeda01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">D&#8217;Angelo Russell<\/a>, a second-round pick, and a second-round pick swap will be heading to Memphis as part of a <a  href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ShamsCharania\/status\/2074655226640973952\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">giant, six-team deal.<\/a><\/p>\n<h2>The Washington Wizards Reunite With Khris Middleton Via Sign-And-Trade<\/h2>\n<p>Middleton will be heading into his 14th NBA season and second stint with the Wizards. After Middleton opted into his player option this past season, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2026\/02\/04\/wizards-trade-for-10-time-nba-all-star-to-pair-with-trae-young\/\" target=\"_self\">Washington shipped him out<\/a> in the <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/d\/davisan02.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Anthony Davis<\/a> trade, which also brought Russell in. The three-time All-Star will now be under contract through the 2028-29 season, making him 37 when his contract expires. Over the course of his career, Middleton is a one-time NBA champion and three-time NBA All-Star, and he holds the all-time three-point record for the Milwaukee Bucks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"max-width: px\"><smartframe-embed class=\"smartframe_wp_element\" customer-id=\"a61405551f80e72f675225f083759bb9\" image-id=\"fwuQwtVEoxhK\" style=\"width: 100%; display: inline-flex; max-width: 3900px; aspect-ratio: 3900\/2700;\" ><\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n<p>This past season with the Wizards and Dallas Mavericks, the 2021 NBA Champion averaged 10.2 points, 3.7 rebounds, and 2.8 assists in 63 games. Now back in D.C. with the revamped Wizards, the three-time All-Star will reunite with Kyshawn George, Alex Sarr, and the rest of the young core.<\/p>\n<p>While Middleton is past his prime, he will once again take on a major role for Washington. With several notable young pieces, the veteran will return to his mentoring role, guiding the same core but now with postseason aspirations. Additionally, he&#8217;ll be someone <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/y\/youngtr01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Trae Young<\/a> can rely on in clutch moments, giving him another scorer.<\/p>\n<h3>The Trade<\/h3>\n<p>Washington and Dallas joined the massive, multi-team trade that&#8217;s been building over the last several weeks. In total, six teams are connected to the Middleton trade, including Memphis. Some notable players moving across this massive trade include <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/l\/leverca01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Caris LeVert<\/a>, <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/s\/stewais01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Isiah Stewart<\/a>, and <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/a\/aldamsa01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Santi Aldama<\/a>. These moves have occurred over several weeks, making it one of the biggest in recent league memory.<\/p>\n<p>With the remaining time in free agency, look for Washington to remain heavily interested in a backup guard. It was reported that the Wizards were <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2026\/06\/30\/nba-free-agency-wizards\/\" target=\"_self\">interested in reuniting with former MVP<\/a>\u00a0<a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/w\/westbru01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Russell Westbrook<\/a>, who is still on the market.<\/p>\n<p><span>Photo Credit: Mark J. Rebila, Imagn Images via Reuters Connect<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Washington Wizards have entered the trade market once again as NBA Free Agency presses on. After acquiring DeAndre Ayton from the Los Angeles Lakers, the Wizards will be bringing back veteran forward Khris Middleton from the Dallas Mavericks. According to ESPN&#8217;s Shams Charania, Middleton will be heading to Washington on a new three-year, $17.6 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5480,"featured_media":204207,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,30,2,62,3,18],"tags":[50506,49244,240,307,1419,324,49322,50509,1349],"class_list":["post-204168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-mavericks","category-featured","category-nba","category-news","category-wizards","tag-2026-nba-free-agency","tag-alex-sarr","tag-anthony-davis","tag-dangelo-russell","tag-deandre-ayton","tag-khris-middleton","tag-kyshawn-george","tag-nba-trades","tag-trae-young"],"modified_by":"Daniel Benjamin, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5480"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204168"}],"version-history":[{"count":31,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204168\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":204212,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204168\/revisions\/204212"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}