Staying with the Wizards! Russell has exercised his $6 million player option, but his performance has declined and he is no longer in his prime.

On June 20 Beijing time, D'Angelo Russell will ultimately stay with the Washington Wizards. NBA insider Jake Fischer reports that the guard has exercised his $6 million player option for the 2026-27 season today.

Salary data site Spotrac indicates that the Wizards' total payroll is $75.575 million over the salary cap, which ranks 17th in the league. However, the team still has $83.339 million of room before the first luxury tax apron, and a further $96.339 million of space before the second luxury tax apron.

Russell started the 2025-26 season with the Dallas Mavericks, who then traded him to the Wizards as part of a major deal that also sent Anthony Davis to Washington. The Wizards completed another trade with the Atlanta Hawks to acquire Trae Young; the team stockpiled several veterans in quick succession, but most of those players barely saw any court time late in the season.

Russell was not the centerpiece of these blockbuster trades, but as the No. 2 pick in the 2015 NBA Draft, he remains a notable figure in the transaction. However, throughout the entire 2025-26 season, Russell did not play a single regular-season game for the Wizards.

General manager Will Dawkins told media in February: "We've communicated with Russell himself and his agent. At this stage, he won't report to the team, and we're evaluating what arrangement works best for him and for the franchise moving forward."

At the time, the general expectation was that the two sides would eventually reach a buyout. But after the March 1 buyout deadline passed, the buyout never materialized—league rules state that a player must be waived by March 1 to be eligible to play in the playoffs for another team.

Now that Russell has exercised his player option, he will remain with the Wizards next season.

At the peak of his career, this situation would have caused a major stir. After all, he was an All-Star while playing for the Brooklyn Nets in the 2018-19 season, and during the following years with the Warriors and Timberwolves, he averaged 23.1 points per game.

His consistent three-point shooting, ability to initiate offense off the dribble, and skill in setting up teammates were all notable. During his stints with the Lakers, Nets, Warriors, and Timberwolves, he was at least a highly dangerous secondary scorer.

But in recent seasons, Russell is no longer the player he once was.

During the 2024-25 season, he moved between the Lakers and Nets, averaging just 12.6 points per game with a three-point percentage as low as 31.4%—both figures were career lows at the time.

Last season, he played 26 games for the Mavericks, and his form declined even further: 10.2 points per game with a three-point percentage of only 29.5%.

Since Russell has exercised his player option, if he indeed wears a Wizards jersey next season, he will need to significantly bounce back statistically to help Washington compete for a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.