Report: With no trade found, Wizards likely to cut Glen Rice Jr.

We told you yesterday the Wizards were shopping Glen Rice Jr. around, hoping to get anything back for a guy who may have been the Summer League plans but was not part of Washington’s long-term plans.

Instead, they will just cut him loose, reports J. Michael of CSNWashington.com.

The Wizards have been trying to move second-year guard Glen Rice Jr. in a trade before contracts become fully guaranteed Jan. 10, CSNwashington.com has confirmed with persons with knowledge of the situation. A 48-hour window in which a deal might have been struck has passed Sunday, however, making a trade unlikely. Rice is expected to be released by Wednesday.

There are a few reasons Rice will be gone despite being the MVP of the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas and putting up good numbers in the D-League. Of course there are on the court reasons — was able to blow by lesser defenders but the athletes at the NBA level slowed him down (yet Rice didn’t adjust his game and was a ball stopper).

Another is just business — Rice has a non-guaranteed contract, so when he gets cut they don’t have to pay him and they save money. Yet another, bigger reason is any minutes he might have been in play for have gone to veteran Rasual Butler, who played his way onto the roster and into the rotation with the Wizards with his steady performances this season.

But there is one final key reason, J. Michael reports.

The final nail in Rice’s stay here, however, was determined to be attitude, people with knowledge of the situation said. Coming into the league, the Wizards knew that was a red flag but thought he could work through it. He turned off several teams during the pre-draft process and that manifested itself in a blowup with coach Randy Wittman in a 19-point loss to the Toronto Raptors on Nov. 7. Rice was pulled from the game and went at Wittman in front of the bench. Rice never played again and was gone two weeks later.

Just a lesson for all you kids out there: don’t argue with the guy who controls your minutes.

It will be interesting to see if another NBA team takes a run at Rice, if he has to prove himself in the D-League and/or overseas.