Over the past few seasons, DeJuan Blair has proved himself to be one of the best young big men in the league. The San Antonio Spurs forward has become known as a rebounding specialist, but has seen his minutes slowly decrease over time. Now a free agent, many believe the Spurs are not interested in re-signing Blair and many teams are taking notice. The Washington Wizards appear to be the first team to jump on the Blair bandwagon.
Yahoo! Sports reports the Wizards are very interested in bringing on Blair, but only in a sign-and-trade scenario. The Wizards have zero cap space to work with which is making the pursuit of Blair very difficult. The Wizards will essentially have to towards trading away any of their backup forwards including Trevor Ariza, Chris Singleton or Trevor Brooker to get Blair.
Despite the lack of financial freedom to work with, Washington has insisted they are not done with offseason moves and would like to add at least one more player that can stretch the floor and create open space for John Wall to operate with. Blair is the type of forward that is active in the low post, bringing toughness to the position. His range is limited, making him not ideal to the team's original plan.
Blair was originally drafted as the next Tim Duncan, but he fell out of favor with head coach Gregg Popovich. His starting spot was taken over by Tiago Splitter, leaving Blair's future with the team uncertain. San Antonio has said they will assist Blair in finding a new team to work with, but it is unlikely the Wizards have the assets to please the Spurs in a trade. The most obvious is Booker since their skill set is the exact same.
Blair's long-term health is going to always be an issue as well. Playing without ACLs in either knee, it is uncertain what kind of career he can have down the road. But, Blair's rebounding skills likely overshadow something like that as he is healthy now. While he cannot move his feet well or protect the rim, he would be a decent third big man signed to something like a two-year deal. Anything more is a risk.
There has not been a lot of attention surrounding Blair. At this point, Greg Oden is generating more headlines than Blair is. The Wizards could have an easy pursuit of Blair if the Spurs are willing to work out the sign-and-trade.
