Washington Wizards match Nets max offer to Otto Porter

The Washington Wizards have matched the Brooklyn Nets’ max offer sheet sent to Otto Porter, keeping Porter with the Wizards.

The Washington Wizards have matched the Brooklyn Nets’ max offer sheet sent to Otto Porter, keeping Porter with the Wizards, according to The Washington Post’s Candace Buckner on Twitter. According to TNT’s David Aldridge, on Twitter, Porter will have to pass a physical, so the match won’t officially happen until next week.

This is a much-anticipated move, and one that the Washington Wizards had said that they would do from the start. Porter was a much sought-after free agent, however he was a restricted free agent, which meant that the Wizards could match any offer sent to him if they wanted to keep him.

Ultimately, he agreed to a max deal with the Brooklyn Nets, a deal that included a 15 percent trade kicker, a player option for the fourth year and an exceptionally odd portion that stated that half of Porter’s annual salary would be sent to him by Oct. 1 every year. Obviously, the Nets were trying to make the deal as sweet as possible, likely to persuade the Wizards not to match it.

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The contract is a four-year, $106.5 million deal, which will keep Porter in Washington at least through the 2020 season, perhaps longer if he chooses not to exercise his fourth-year player option.

Porter really came into his own last year, showing the world why he was picked at No. 3 overall in 2013. He finished last season averaging 13.4 points per game, 6.4 rebounds per game, and 1.5 steals game, while shooting 51.6% from the floor, and 43.4% from three-point land. Every single one of those averages and percentages were career-highs for the 24-year-old.

There were talks for a while that the Wizards were willing to send Porter to the Indiana Pacers in a sign-and-trade deal to acquire Paul George, however right after free agency started, George was traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis.

Next: Wizards Reportedly Interested in Jamal Crawford

Certainly there will be debates throughout Washington and throughout the NBA about whether Porter, the Wizards third-best option on the team, is worthy of a max contract, but with any luck, Porter will continue to improve in the years to come and put all those doubts to bed.