Trade grades: Who wins the Austin Rivers-Marcin Gortat swap?

The deal

Wizards get:  Austin Rivers

Clippers get:  Marcin Gortat

Get more trade grades for every deal here

Washington Wizards: B

I'm curious to see where this deal leads for the Wizards. Had you told me before this trade was first reported by ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski that Washington had agreed to trade Gortat, I would have expected it to be a money-saving move -- sending Gortat for a player with a much smaller salary. Rivers indeed makes less than Gortat, but the difference -- less than $1 million in 2018-19 -- is marginal.

Instead, this mostly seems to be a case of the Wizards reshuffling their roster. Dealing Gortat leaves them with Ian Mahinmi and Jason Smith as centers under contract, and surely they won't make up the Wizards' rotation in the middle. It's just not entirely clear who will be part of it.

Does moving Gortat signal a desire to play smaller lineups with Markieff Morris and a re-signed Mike Scott playing center? Or does Washington have a value free agent like a post-buyout Dwight Howard in mind? Most dramatically, will the Wizards pursue a sign-and-trade deal to pair DeMarcus Cousins with his Kentucky teammate John Wall?

It's hard to really evaluate this transaction without knowing the rest of Washington's plan. In a vacuum, however, the value is probably good for the Wizards. As I've been emphasizing lately, it's easier to find cheap talent in the frontcourt than on the wing, something Washington found out firsthand last summer.

Limited in what they could spend in free agency, the Wizards gave a one-plus-one deal to guard Jodie Meeks, who was mediocre before getting hit with a 25-game NBA suspension on the eve of the playoffs because he tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs. (He'll serve the last 19 games of that suspension to start the 2018-19 season.) It's no surprise that Meeks picked up his $3.5 million player option, which looks close to dead salary at this point.

Meanwhile, Washington also gave a one-year deal at the veteran's minimum to Scott, who emerged as the team's top frontcourt reserve and averaged better than 20 minutes per game in the postseason. Scott is an unrestricted free agent, but given the weak market for bigs the Wizards should be able to bring him back at a reasonable price.

Between Rivers, Kelly Oubre and Tomas Satoransky, Washington now appears to have enviable depth behind the starting perimeter trio of Wall, Bradley Beal and Otto Porter. That could encourage Scott Brooks to feature smaller lineups with Porter at power forward. Or perhaps the Wizards use that as pretext to deal someone for a replacement at center. We'll know more in a few weeks.

LA Clippers: C-minus

From the Clippers' perspective, Gortat seems to provide insurance in case DeAndre Jordan declines his 2018-19 player option by Friday and tests free agency -- or opts in and is traded. Unfortunately, at $13.6 million, Gortat is an expensive insurance policy and no longer the solid starting center he long was in Phoenix and Washington.

Now 34, Gortat saw his finishing ability decline last season. He shot just 65 percent within three feet, per Basketball-Reference.com, after hitting better than 70 percent of such attempts each of the previous seven seasons. Since Gortat doesn't offer much floor spacing and is a marginal free-throw shooter (68 percent career), he needs to be finishing at a high level to retain value offensively.

The Clippers can hope that Gortat's seeming downturn was largely related to Wall's injuries. Per Second Spectrum tracking, Gortat shot 69 percent in the restricted area with Wall on the court, as compared to 57 percent with Wall on the bench.

Still, some decline is to be expected at this stage of Gortat's career. Given the high replacement level at center and the limited money available in free agency, I think the Clippers could have done better replacing Jordan using their midlevel exception. They've also chosen to finally move on from Rivers at a time when his value should be higher than ever. While still more third guard than starter, he posted the best advanced stats of his career in 2017-18, making 2.2 3-pointers per game at a strong 38 percent clip.

In the long run, there isn't any real downside for the Clippers. Both Gortat and Rivers are in the final seasons of their contracts, leaving the Clippers in position to clear max-plus cap space in the summer of 2019. And, with rookies Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jerome Robinson added to the backcourt rotation, Rivers' role probably would have been smaller in 2018-19. Nonetheless, I would have passed on this deal.