Jonas Valanciunas, the 2011 first-round No. 5 pick, ushered in his new start after handing in a full-time season for the Pelicans in 2023-24; According to related reports, Varland and the Wizards have reached a contract with a three-year contract of 30 million, and there are no player options and team options in this contract.
Combined with the content of the game, Varan belongs to a team with obvious personal characteristics, the offensive end has the ability to hold the ball in the low post, and in recent years, he has gradually developed medium and long-distance shooting, which is not bad rebounding, and the average playing time per game can basically be controlled at about 25 minutes, and then there is no problem in contributing double-double data. However, referring to his performance with the Pelicans in recent years, his playing time has been declining year by year, and the limitations brought by age have led to a serious delay in personal mobility, and it is basically difficult for him to afford the league's demanding defensive switching strategy on the defensive end.
Even last season, although he was still able to get an average of 23.4 minutes of playing time per game, the Pelicans basically chose the interior candidates at key moments in the game; Just looking at the team's lineup, the 32-year-old is obviously not in the team's future blueprint, and the breakup between him and the Pelicans was actually expected.
Combined with the list on the free market in the offseason, there are actually not many high-quality No. 5 positions, aside from Claxton, who can basically be counted as instant combat power, Harden and Varan were also signed to the Thunder for three years and 87 million, and the only thing left is Varan. originally thought that he would be able to join a playoff team with such instant combat power, but he didn't expect that the final choice was a bad wizard, and even a contract far below the market price like 30 million for three years was really cheap.
For this next choice, it may be Varland's insistence on the team's positioning, after all, with his current state, joining a playoff team can basically only serve as an interior substitute, and in a bad team like the Wizards, the starting position should be relatively stable.
Although they only renewed Holmes' contract before, there is Bagley in the team, and even counting the rookie Sarr in the draft, the team still has a lot of rotation in the interior position, but the first two are not very able to stand in the starter, and Sarr's characteristics are more suitable for the No. 4 position, combined with these circumstances, Varland's choice of the Wizards is actually not a bad result, but for the team, they still hoard a lot of rotation-level players in the interior position, which is indeed a little difficult to understand.
From the perspective of player characteristics, Wallan's low-post offense and rebounding protection are currently lacking in the Wizards, his low-post offensive efficiency this season can rank in the top 30% of the league, and the rebounding efficiency can rank in the top 10 in the league among players who have played 50 games, and there is another point, his appearances in the last three seasons are 74 games, 79 games, and 82 games, and the absolute advantage of attendance efficiency is completely a trustworthy choice for the Wizards in the regular season.
On the other hand, considering the newly selected interior long-term Alexander Sarr, Varan can play as a meat shield partner in the No. 5 position on the court, and off the court is a mentor to the rookie teammates, so as to pass on a lot of experience to future successors. Whether the Wizards choose to stay with the team for their own use or seek a secondary trade in the future, Valan's instant force is a very suitable choice.
After adding Varran, let's take a look at the Wizards' current roster list:
Kyle Kuzma, Jordan Poole, Corey Kisbert, Marvin Bagley, Bilal Koulibaly
Landry Shamet, Gary Butler, Eugene Omoriluye, Patrick Baldwin Jr
Johnny Davis, Maxime Brogdon, Jonas Valanciunas
Kaishawn George, R.J. Hampton, Rijon Holmes, Alexander Saar
According to the above list, there are no vacancies in the Wizards' basic roster, but considering the existence of several non-guaranteed contracts of Garred Butler and Eugene Omoreluye, as well as Shamet's trade tendencies, the Wizards should still have a trade micro-operation in the future. At present, the team's first priority should be to get back last season's main point guard Tyus Jones, and then add a few rotational forces to the roster's shortcomings, whether it is a trade or a signing, it can be tried.
Although the team still doesn't have much competitiveness at the moment, but after the selection of Sarr, coupled with Koulibaly, who grew well last season, the Wizards' rebuilding task is gradually on track, but it still needs to wait for time, at this stage they should rely on Poole the most, Kuzma and others, Varan can also get more opportunities to play, if he can contribute steadily, considering the needs of the team and Sarr's training tasks, he should still be able to stay with the Wizards for a long time.