The NBA’s offseason is increasingly resembling a puzzle rather than just a series of transactions, where each piece must wait for three others to move before it can slot into place. Last year, a seven-team deal sent Kevin Durant to Houston. Now, a six-team, 11-player sign-and-trade has again shaken up the league, with Khris Middleton and D’Angelo Russell serving as the twin centerpieces of a deal involving Dallas, Detroit, LA, Memphis, Milwaukee, and Washington.

ESPN’s Shams Charania reported that Middleton agreed to a three-year, $17.6 million deal with the Washington Wizards through a sign-and-trade. The 34-year-old veteran arrived in Washington in February 2025 and was then traded to Dallas a year later in 2026. In about 17 months, Middleton went from being a championship winner and franchise icon in Milwaukee to being traded three times, landing with three different teams.

This move marks his second stint with Washington after a brief stay away from the organization. Russell, meanwhile, heads to Memphis on a trade-only basis, with sources indicating a modest one-year, veteran-minimum structure that gives both sides flexibility, making Memphis his fourth team in three seasons.

These trades also involved the Dallas Mavericks, Detroit Pistons, Grizzlies, LA Clippers, Milwaukee Bucks, and Wizards. Here’s what the trade looks like:

• Dallas Mavericks: Santi Aldama (from MEM), Marcus Sasser (from DET), Tarik Biberovic (draft rights from MEM)
• Detroit Pistons: John Collins (from LAC via S&T), Gary Harris (from MIL), Taurean Prince (from MIL), three second-round picks (from MEM)
• LA Clippers: No players incoming (create $16M TPE for John Collins), protected 2028 second-round pick (from DET)
• Memphis Grizzlies: A.J. Johnson, 2030 conditional first-round pick, and a 2029 second-round pick (from DAL), Isaiah Stewart (from DET), D’Angelo
• Russell, a 2029 second-rounder, a 2032 second-round pick swap, and a 2033 second-round pick (from WAS)
• Milwaukee Bucks: Caris LeVert and two second-round picks (from DET)
• Washington Wizards: Khris Middleton. 2033 second-round pick (from DAL via S&T)

Dallas’ motivation was simple: Aldama is a real upgrade for its rotation, averaging 14 points and 6.7 rebounds on 47.9% shooting and 35% from three last season, while Biberovic’s EuroLeague draft rights give the Mavericks a low-cost future option.

Moving Middleton, who shot a solid 40% from the field and 39% from three in 16 starts for Dallas, was the price of entry to see Memphis’s willingness to part with Aldama, another key rotation piece from the Ja Morant era. Sasser fills the backup guard role without complicating the cap sheet.

Pistons get veteran spot-up shooter in Prince, who shot 43% from 3-point range over the past two seasons. Harris adds veteran leadership. The previously agreed Collins trade is also part of the new six-team deal.

Crucially, Detroit indirectly needed to move Prince and Harris, both on modest, outgoing-friendly deals, to create the salary room required to absorb Collins without triggering hard-cap implications. Memphis’s three second-round picks were the incentive to take on that facilitation role.

Veteran analyst Keith Smith stated that the Clippers got a $16 million trade exception from the Collins trade.

Rather than take back salary, the Clippers structured the Collins deal as a sign-and-trade specifically to generate that TPE, a future-use tool that costs them nothing now, but preserves their ability to add a player mid-season without needing matching contracts.

Memphis continued stockpiling assets and future draft capital. They also keep their massive $28.9 million traded player exception created from the February 3 trade of Jaren Jackson Jr. That existing TPE is what gave Memphis the financial ramp to absorb both Stewart and Russell in the same deal without exceeding their cap thresholds.

In LeVert, the Bucks continue to rejig the post-Giannis era. Last season, the 31-year-old played 60 games for the Pistons, all from the bench, averaging 7.4 points. But he shot 41.7% from the field and even scored 24 points in Detroit’s Game 4 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers. For a Bucks team still searching for identity, LeVert is a low-risk bet, packaged with two second-rounders that give Milwaukee more reconstruction chips.

What’s next for Khris Middleton and the Wizards?

While Khris Middleton is on a reported three-year, $17.6 million contract, only the first year is guaranteed, according to The Athletic. The second season will be partially guaranteed, and the third season will be non-guaranteed. He averaged 10.2 points, 3.7 rebounds, and 2.8 assists in 63 games last season. But in Dallas, as stated earlier, he started 16 games and shot 40% from the field and 39% from beyond the arc.

Middleton was also “hugely popular” in the Washington locker room during his 48-game stint over two seasons before he was moved because of the Anthony Davis deal. The Wizards believe that Middleton and CJ McCollum (who was traded to the Hawks) were both “very good influences” behind the scenes.

That’s why Middleton and the Wizards had “mutual interest” for another reunion, as per Shams.

The financial architecture behind it was just as deliberate as the basketball fit: Washington used Middleton and recently acquired Deandre Ayton to absorb into a larger trade exception expiring July 9, then freed up two new $6 million trade exceptions by dealing Jaden Hardy to the Lakers and Russell to Memphis. Also, Russell is the Grizzlies’ 20th guaranteed contract, so he is a candidate to be bought out.

The sign-and-trade structure on Middleton’s deal was the only mechanism that made this sequencing possible, since a straight free-agent signing would have left the Wizards without the cap tools they needed to keep reshaping the roster around their young core.

The primary role for Khris Middleton will be to mentor the #1 draft pick, AJ Dybantsa. The exciting roster also features young prospects like Kyshawn George, Will Riley, and Bilal Coulibaly. So expect another positive reinforcement from Khris Middleton.

Eleven players. Ten second-round picks. Cash considerations. Six franchises. What looks like chaos on the surface is, in fact, each team solving a different problem with the same set of moving parts, and that is precisely why these trades keep getting bigger.