When I have downtime during the day, I find that my thoughts wander. And instead of the topics that most young men’s thoughts wander to (Fortnite, ladies, ravioli with pesto sauce, babes, chicken wings, etc.) my thoughts wander to the following question: what if the Wizards had not matched the offer sheet that Otto Porter got from the Sacramento Kings?
There’s too many dominoes in play here to accurately determine where they would have fallen. It’s kind of like those WWII enthusiasts who construct elaborate what-if scenarios instead of being productive members of society. One thing I can definitely say would have happened is that Otto Porter would be on the Kings right now and the Wizards wouldn’t have him.
Would the Kings have a better record right now with Porter than without him? He’s definitely better at small forward than Iman Shumpert is, but Porter’s max contract would have prevented the Kings from signing Nemanja Bjelica. They might have had to move Porter to PF and keep Shumpert at SF. I don’t know if the Kings are any better if that’s their lineup situation, but I only think that because I don’t care for Shumpert at all.
How are the Wizards affected? Their record is disappointing right now and I don’t think it would be any more disappointing with Porter out of the picture, since he’s been a nonfactor in most of their games. The Wizards would actually have a lot more salary flexibility if they didn’t have Porter, so their decision to match was questionable.
One thing that I know for a fact: whichever fanbase ended up with Porter, they were going to start devising ways to unload that contract as soon as the ink dried.