With the expectation that he declines his player option, we analyze what Trae Young's extension with the Washington Wizards could look like this summer.
Trae Young has been a revelation since the Washington Wizards traded for him on Jan 9, 2026, and it is weird saying this even though he only played five games, so “revelation” may be a bit of a stretch, but you get it. All of the young bulls were heaping praise on Trae Young in their exit interviews, and you could see Bilal Coulibaly, Bub Carrington, and Tre Johnson starting to expand their games while playing alongside Trae. Off the court, Trae was always tapped into the city, whether it was him pulling up in vintage Georgetown jerseys, showing love at Capitals games with the “Rock the Red” vibe, just fully embracing DC. It kinda felt like this marriage was long overdue, right?
But now we get to the real crux of the possible marriage: the contract extension. How much should the Wizards pay the 27 year old star? How much would his market command? Should the Wizards heavily pursue the prenuptial “third year team option”?
There’s a wide belief that Trae Young is going to decline that $49 million player option, with the deadline coming up June 29 and that’s where things get interesting. There were earlier reports saying the Wizards want him to be like the CP3 of this rebuild, a steady hand, leader, culture setter. And it makes sense, we have seen many rebuild success stories get catapulted into relevance with the addition of a veteran point with winning experience (see Rockets, Fred Van Vleet, well, for now). The Wizards haven’t had a point guard during the entire 3 year rebuild, which in essence, was done by design, for the tank.
On the court, small sample size, but still, five games, 15 points in 20 minutes, shooting splits of 59/42/79. Efficient, finding players in their spots, but most importantly, being the lead ball handler and initiator that the Wizards have long desired for years. That’s exactly what you want next to a young core.
Then you had Marc Stein drop that report in early March saying Washington is aiming to give Trae an extension this offseason. Follow that up with another report stating that something like 3 years, $120 million, roughly $30–40M a year could be a barometer for a contract extension for Trae.
But here’s the thing: if Trae’s making $40M annually, he’s not even cracking the top tier of point guard annual salary. He’d be around guys like LaMelo Ball and Tyrese Maxey which would put him at around the 12th highest paid point guard in the league, which in my humble estimation would be a steal for a player of Trae’s caliber.
And if you know Will Dawkins, you know he might get creative. He may front-load the contract and have it on a descending value, like the Deni Avdija deal. So yeah, that’s probably the ideal setup, 3 years, $120M, with a player option on the third year. A win-win for both parties, right?
Coercing your partner to sign their name next to the dotted line is not an ideal start to begin a marriage but here we are...
Trae’s mentorship and influence alone changes everything. You can already imagine what a full season of his influence could look like.
If you lock Trae in at a number much lower than that $50M range, the number that he’s currently making now, it may justify dishing out the contract even if the Wizards get scorned in the draft and are forced to draft a guard with the fifth pick. Only time will tell, and by “time," I mean June 29th.