Although the Washington Wizards won’t have their own developmental G League team until the 2018-19 season, the team still plans to take advantage of a new feature in the latest collective bargaining agreement. On Wednesday, the Wizards announced the signing of rookie forward Michael Young to the team’s first ‘two-way’ contract, given to a young player who will primarily spend his time in the minor leagues. Young, 6 feet 9 and 235 pounds, played four seasons at the University of Pittsburgh and last year led the ACC in scoring with a 19.6-point average.
According to his agent Seth Cohen, Young signed with the Wizards on a two-year deal.
Under the new CBA, all teams are allowed to have up to two additional players assigned to the G League, formerly known as the NBA Development League. Although the players are part of the franchise and will be included in the team’s 17-man maximum roster, their contracts will not count against the salary cap. The players are paid at contracts starting at a prorated amount of $75,000 for time spent in the G League, approximately $500 a day.
In the Wizards’ case, they can add one more player like Young, develop both players during the team’s training camp in October and then assign the pair to a nearby G League affiliate, likely the Delaware 87ers, who are owned by the Philadelphia 76ers. A ‘two-way’ player can spend up to 45 days with the parent team, but that doesn’t include periods of time before the G League training camp starts and after the season ends. However if Young remains with the Wizards for more than 45 days, than his deal converts into an NBA contract.
By the start of the 2018-19 season, the Wizards are expected to become the 27th NBA franchise to operate a G League team. Washington’s minor-league squad will play its games in an as-yet-to-be-constructed arena in Southeast.
Young, 22, finished his career at Pitt by ranking seventh in school history with 1,835 points. Though Young went undrafted, he had impressed the Wizards throughout his college career and during his June 5 workout. In the late hours following the NBA draft, Young verbally agreed to a deal finalized by Cohen and Wizards President Ernie Grunfeld. Young signed on the first day of free agency, July 1.
Young will compete with the Wizards’ Summer League team that begins play this Saturday against the Memphis Grizzlies at the Cox Pavilion on the University of Las Vegas campus. Wizards’ Sheldon Mac and Daniel Ochefu, who were both undrafted in 2016, will return to Summer League. So will Danuel House, who initially made the team but was later waived to make room for Brandon Jennings in March.
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