Bojan Bogdanovic traded to Wizards in deal involving 1st-round pick

The Washington Wizards have acquired reserve forwards Bojan Bogdanovic and Chris McCullough from the Brooklyn Nets, according to The Vertical’s Adrian Wojnarowski. In exchange, the Nets receive reserve guard Marcus Thornton, forward Andrew Nicholson, and the Wizards’ lottery-protected 2017 first-round pick.

The Nets were determined to receive a first-round pick in return for Bogdanovic, according to Wojnarowski.

The move helps shore up the Wizards’ second unit as they look to solidify their standing in the Eastern Conference’s top half. It also provides the Nets a second first-round pick in 2017’s loaded draft, though they will be forced to swap their own with the Boston Celtics as a result of the Kevin Garnett-Paul Pierce trade.

Bogdanovic is a streak shooter and scorer, averaging a modest 14.2 points on 35.7 percent three-point shooting for a league-worst Nets team (9-39). Brooklyn replaces his production with Thornton, who is averaging a career-worst 6.6 points per game, though heralded as capable bench scorer for much of his NBA tenure.

Washington has darted up the Eastern Conference standings having won nine of its last 10 games, but bench production has remained an issue.

The Wizards reserves average just 23.4 points per game, scoring the second-least points of any team’s bench ahead of only the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Washington forfeits its first-rounder in this year’s deep draft, but the team adds a veteran perimeter scorer in Bogdanovic. They take back second-year forward McCullough, who has played sparingly in 14 games this season, as well.

The Wizards also free themselves of the remaining three years and $21 million of Nicholson’s contract. That space under the luxury tax will prove valuable as Washington offers a contract extension to Otto Porter, who enters restricted free agency this summer.

Bogdanovic also becomes a restricted free agent this summer and will likely command a raise from the three-year, $10 million contract he signed in 2014.

More than anything, Brooklyn gets a second pick in this year’s draft, a valuable asset it can use as part of a package to move up.

Rebuilding the Nets is a years-long process, so taking back Nicholson’s contract, which runs through the 2019-20 season, doesn’t damage their long-term goal of building a winning culture.

Inserting Thornton into the rotation will help the team stay competitive, though Brooklyn already has a reserve scoring guard in Sean Kilpatrick. Thornton becomes an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season.

It was clear moving Bogdanovic was a forward-thinking move. Now, Nets GM Sean Marks has an extra asset to help revive Brooklyn to the relevance it lost years ago.