Pelicans pulling off four-player trade that also involves multiple draft picks

Both McCollum ($30.7M) and Olynyk ($13.4M) will be on expiring contracts in 2025-26, so this move will significantly increase the Wizards’ projected 2026 cap room. They were already going to have a lot of money coming off their books next summer, with Khris Middleton ($33.3M), Marcus Smart ($21.6M) and potentially Richaun Holmes ($13.3M; mostly non-guaranteed) also on expiring deals.

Corey Kispert‘s $14M is now the only fully guaranteed salary on Washington’s cap for 2026-27, though a handful of players on rookie scale contracts will join him once the Wizards officially pick up their 2026-27 options later this year. The team currently projects to have more than $80M in cap room next summer, per Yossi Gozlan of The Third Apron, and possibly up to $100M, according to Charania.

In addition to generating future cap flexibility, the Wizards will add a pair of respected veterans who are still playing pretty good basketball.

While McCollum is an undersized shooting guard who isn’t a great defender, he put up 21.1 points and 4.1 assists per game this past season on .444/.373/.717 shooting in 56 contests (all starts). Olynyk, who was traded from Toronto to New Orleans in February, battled injuries that limited him to 44 appearances, but posted respectable averages of 8.7 PPG, 4.7 RPG and 2.9 APG in 20.3 MPG and made 41.8% of his three-point tries.

Although neither player has substantial trade value, both should be movable later this offseason or during the season if the Wizards aren’t committed to keeping them for the entire 2025-26 campaign.

According to Josh Robbins of The Athletic, the second-round pick going to Washington in the deal is Chicago’s 2027 second-rounder. The Wizards were actually already going to receive that pick if it were to land in the top 50, but now they’ll get it no matter where it ends up, rather than the Pelicans receiving it if it’s between 51 and 60.

As for the Pelicans, they’re sacrificing some 2026 cap flexibility in the trade but will move a little further below next season’s luxury-tax line and get younger by acquiring Poole and Bey.

Poole, who turned 26 last Thursday, had a strong bounce-back year in D.C. in 2024-25 after a shaky first season with the Wizards. He averaged 20.5 points, 4.5 assists and 3.0 rebounds in 29.4 minutes per game, with a shooting line of .432/.378/.883.

Like McCollum, Poole isn’t exactly a lock-down defender, but the former Warrior been pretty effective with the ball in his hands and should help New Orleans replace some of the play-making the team lost when Dejounte Murray tore his Achilles midway through the 2024-25 season — Murray’s recovery process is expected to extend into next season.

Poole is owed roughly $65.9M over the next two years, with $4.25M in annual incentives ($8.5M in total) that count toward the tax apron, but not the cap. Bey has two seasons and $12.6M left on his contract, with $333K in unlikely incentives each year.

Acquiring the duo in exchange for McCollum and Olynyk will reduce New Orleans’ team salary by about $6M for cap/tax purposes, giving the club some extra breathing room to make additional moves.

Bey showed some real promise as a three-and-D wing in Detroit and Atlanta earlier in his career, but struggled with his outside shot for the Hawks in 2023-24 and tore his ACL near the end of that season, which cost him the entire 2024-25 campaign. He’ll be looking to make his comeback to the court this fall at age 26.

The trade is the second one the Pelicans have made within the last week to add 2025 draft capital. The club previously acquired a first-round pick from the Pacers in exchange for a 2026 first-rounder and now has the seventh, 23rd and 40th overall picks entering this week’s draft.

The deal won’t become official until July due to Washington’s position relative to the first tax apron, notes ESPN’s Bobby Marks. That means there’s still a possibility it could expand to include more teams and pieces before it’s finalized.

If it’s completed as currently constructed, the Wizards would be hard-capped at the first apron for the 2025-26 season as a result of taking back more salary than they send out.