As the Wizards agreed to a trade with the Nuggets acquiring Monte Morris and Will Barton for Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Ish Smith, Washington fortified its backcourt as well as expanded its return for former franchise cornerstone, John Wall.
Right before the 2020-21 season, Sheppard swung a trade for Russell Westbrook, sending the Rockets Wall and a protected first-round pick to swap big-name point guards. At the time of the deal, Wall had three years and over $130 million left on his contract. Having not played for two years leading up to the trade due to injury, Wall's contract was widely considered one of the league's worst.
Still, Sheppard was able to find value by flipping Wall for Westbrook and then shipping Westbrook to the Lakers the following offseason for a number of quality role players including Caldwell-Pope. Now, the Wizards' return for Wall looks like this.
OUT
John Wall
Davis Bertans
Chandler Hutchison
2023 protected first-round pick
2022, 2024(2), 2025 and 2028 second-round picks
IN
Monte Morris
Will Barton
Kyle Kuzma
Kristaps Porzingis
Isaiah Todd
Vernon Carey Jr.
NBA
So far, that's four rotation players (maybe three starters), and two unproven young players for two of the more undesirable contracts in the league at the time of their respective trades and just one future first-round pick along with a multitude of relatively insignificant second-rounders.
Morris, Barton, Kuzma, Todd and Carey can all be traced back to the Westbrook trade, while Porzingis' involvement here is a bit more complicated. Because the Wizards acquired Spencer Dinwiddie in a sign-and-trade from the Nets, they were able to fold that acquisition into the larger Westbrook trade.
So while they didn't directly acquire Dinwiddie, and therefore Porzingis, directly from sending out Westbrook, Sheppard and the front office's ability to savvily work a sign-and-trade into an existing deal on the fly allowed them to extract even more value for their roster.
Wall himself was just recently bought out by the Rockets and is free to aign with whatever team he desires in free agency. However, reports suggest he's already eyeing the Clippers as his next NBA home.