The Wizards have decided not to exercise their 2025/26 team options for guard Johnny Davis and forward Patrick Baldwin Jr., a league source tells Josh Robbins of The Athletic.
Rather than having the fourth-year salaries in their respective rookie scale contracts become guaranteed, Davis and Baldwin will be on track to become unrestricted free agents in July 2025, assuming they play out the 2024/25 season on their current deals.
Davis’ fourth-year option for 2025/26 would have been worth $6,746,229, while Baldwin’s was for $4,420,156. It doesn’t come as a huge surprise that the Wizards were unwilling to lock in those salaries, since neither player has established himself as a reliable, productive role player to this point. Both players were also drafted by Washington’s previous front office regime.
The 10th overall pick in the 2022 draft, Davis has appeared in a total of 80 games for the Wizards, averaging just 4.0 points and 1.7 assists in 13.1 minutes per night, with a shooting line of .392/.279/.549. Baldwin, the 28th overall pick who began his career in Golden State and was traded to D.C. along with Jordan Poole last summer, has averaged 4.2 points and 2.4 rebounds per contest on .390/.348/.676 shooting in 71 total games (10.3 MPG).
By rule, the Wizards won’t be able to offer Davis or Baldwin a starting salary exceeding their 2025/26 option salaries next summer. That restriction only applies to the team that ends the season with the player on its roster — for instance, is Davis is traded and finishes the season with another club, that club would be prohibited from offering a starting salary worth more than $6,746,229.
Davis and Baldwin are two of the three Wizards players whose contracts include rookie scale team options for ’25/26. The Wizards have, unsurprisingly, picked up the third-year option on Bilal Coulibaly, the team confirmed in a press release. That option is worth $7,275,600.
The No. 7 overall pick in last year’s draft, Coulibaly averaged 8.4 PPG, 4.1 RPG, and 1.7 APG as a rookie in 63 games (27.2 MPG). He’s off to a good start this season, having boosted those averages to 16.0 PPG, 4.7 RPG, and 3.3 APG on .500/.357/.813 shooting through Washington’s first three games.