As he enters his 15th NBA season, and his first full one as a member of the Washington Wizards, Anthony Davis is eligible for a long-term contract extension. But the 10-time All-Star made it clear on Monday that he's in no rush to put pen to paper.
Davis came to Washington in a surprising February trade that ended his brief and fitful stint with the Dallas Mavericks, following the significantly more surprising blockbuster that sent Luka Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers. He has still yet to suit up for the Wizards, though, missing the final three-plus months of the 2025-26 season after suffering ligament damage in his left hand while still a member of the Mavericks.
Speaking at the Wizards' season-opening media day session on Monday, a healthy Davis said he's excited to get back on the floor and play for the first time in months. He also echoed his summertime stance that he prefers to take a wait-and-see approach to holding discussions on a longer-term partnership. When will the 33-year-old be open to having those talks?
"When the season is over," Davis told reporters on Monday. "I'm going to go through the season, try to do what I do at a high level, and then, when it's over, you know, sit down and have those key conversations again with the front office."
A five-time All-NBA and All-Defensive Team selection, Davis is set to make $58.5 million this season, and holds a $62.8 million player option for 2027-28. He's eligible to sign an extension that would tack an extra four years onto his existing deal, with a maximum possible value of $275 million in new money through the year 2031.
It's unlikely the Wizards would offer Davis that full-boat max, given that he turns 34 in March, that a new deal would carry him through his age-38 season, and that he has played more than 60 games just once since the pandemic. Even if Washington did offer something approaching max money for multiple seasons, though — as they did in furnishing fellow incoming "distressed asset" star Trae Young with a four-year, $212.8 million extension this summer — it's unclear how interested Davis would be in accepting it.
Davis has consistently expressed an interest in proceeding with caution when it comes to deciding on his next steps since being dealt to the Wizards — a franchise that has won 18 or fewer games in each of the last three seasons, that has finished under .500 in eight consecutive seasons, that has not won a playoff series in a decade, and that has neither made it to the conference finals nor won 50 games since 1979.
"I've been in this league a long time, and I've been with losing teams, been on losing teams," Davis said during an April appearance on "The Draymond Green Show." "It's very hard to be a losing team and then a championship contender, right? […] That's what I would like to see. What is our plan for winning going into next season? And how? Not like this is a plan, but how do we execute that? And based on that, we'll kind of see what happens."
During his media day session, Davis praised several moves the Wizards made this offseason — not only drafting BYU standout AJ Dybantsa with the No. 1 overall pick in June's 2026 NBA Draft, but also bringing in veterans Khris Middleton and Deandre Ayton — as indications that Washington's front office is "trying to win, and change the narrative around the Wizards of being this 'off night.'"
"People say, 'Oh, you going to D.C.' or 'D.C. coming to town' — guys stay up a little later and kind of mess around the game," Davis said. "So, kind of change that narrative of how we want to be the team that we want to be for this season. I'm very excited about that."
Getting full, healthy comeback seasons from established stars like Davis and Young would certainly help the Wizards begin the process of altering the way they're perceived around the league. On the flip side, though, if Davis does begin the season looking at least as productive as he was when he was last healthy — it's easy to forget that AD averaged more than 20 points on 50% shooting, 11 rebounds and nearly three assists and three steals-plus-blocks per game in his 20 appearances in Dallas last season — and he continues to show no inclination toward inking a long-term deal, the Wizards might have to consider exploring what sort of market there might be for his services as a short-term rental ahead of the trade deadline.
Feb. 11 is a long way off, though. For now, the Wizards are focused on trying to return to relevance and competitiveness, blending ongoing development for youngsters like Dybantsa, Alex Sarr, Kyshawn George and Tre Johnson with the hoped-for stability and high-level play of its new All-Star inside-out combo, with Young captaining the offense and Davis leading the back line.
"AD's in a great frame of mind. He's focused and ready to start the season," Wizards general manager Will Dawkins recently told reporters. "I would say he's very much a motivated player right now, and I would expect AD to remind the basketball world who he really is."
If he manages to do that and stay healthy in the process, then the Wizards could become awfully interesting, and Davis could be in line to capitalize — whether in D.C. or elsewhere.
