Washington Wizards President Ernie Grunfeld announced today that the team has acquired a future first round draft pick from the Memphis Grizzlies in exchange for the rights to Juan Carlos Navarro.

“We’re pleased to acquire a first round pick, which gives us an additional asset,” said Grunfeld. “Our backcourt, led by Gilbert Arenas, DeShawn Stevenson, Antonio Daniels and our recent draft pick Nick Young, is deep and versatile. By trading the rights to Juan Carlos Navarro – a former second round pick of the Wizards – we have greater flexibility to build our team.”

Navarro was originally drafted by the Wizards with the 40th overall pick in the second round of the 2002 NBA Draft.

Hey guys - it seems quite a bit has gone on in my two weeks of absence. We can all play catch up come later, let’s get right to the chase.

Both ESPN.com and Ivan Carter (via his Post blog) are reporting that the Wizards will trade the team’s rights to Juan Carlos Navarro (aka: La Bomba) in exchange for a future conditional first round pick. EDIT: Saturday’s edition of the Post reports that the trade has been agreed to in principle.

Glad to be back home - thanks much to Will (aka: FantasticWiz) for doing a great job holding down the fort in my absence. Looking forward to continued posts from him.

More from my end Monday…unless of course anything exciting comes up.

According to several reports, Barcelona, Navarro’s current team, has imposed a deadline of Aug. 3 for the Wizards to complete a deal. That means the Wizards will have to decide until the end of next week whether to sign guard Juan Carlos Navarro or trade his NBA rights to another team.

In today’s Washington Post’s report, eight teams have contacted with the Wizards with interest in acquiring Navarro, including the Miami Heat and Memphis Grizzlies, so far, no offers have been to the liking of Wizards President Ernie Grunfeld.

Now that Mo Williams chose Bew City over South Beach, the Heat has more reasons to pursue Navarro. Accorrding to Navarro’s agent, Alex Saratsis, the Heat remains “a solid possibility” for the point guard if the Washington Wizards trade his rights. The two teams are in active negotiations, according to a report from South Florida Sun-Sentinel. According to the official press release from the Miami Heat, they have signed free agent guard Smush Parker.

The Spanish team that Navarro played for has dropped his buyout number from $14 million to $3 million. However, if no deal is done between the Wizards and a team pursuing him, Barcelona will sign him to a new contract, and his buyout number will be prohibitive, at least $14 million again.

The bottomline is that he will not be playing in Washington. The Wizards are over the cap and only could have signed Navarro with money from their mid-level exception. Most of that money has now been given to DeShawn Stevenson, and the team still has to sign Andray Blatche.

So if Wizards President Ernie Grunfeld does not see a reasonable deal from teams like Memphis and Miami before Aug. 3, it might end up with Navarro playing his professional ball in Spain for a forseeable future.

Now with the clock ticking down and a complicated decision to make involving Barcelona, Navarro (and his agent), the Wizards and the team pursuing him, what do you think the Wizards will get before the deadline? Is the pressure on Navarro or Grunfeld?

Now you know why “never say never”* is something to live by.

Last week, when asked about Navarro’s contract situation during his pre-draft talk with the media, Wizards President Ernie Grunfeld wasn’t optimistic about Juan Carlos Navarro being able negotiate a buyout with his team in Europe but did say “you can’t rule anything out”.

That didn’t take long.

According to FC Barcelona’s official website, the team and Navarro “have come to an agreement to negotiate a move for the player to the NBA.”

“I am very happy with the facilities that the club has given me and especially President Joan Laporta for allowing me to make my dream come true and play in the NBA,” Navarro said in a statement released by the European powerhouse.

Several US based online sources, including the Washington Post and DraftExpress also discuss the latest developments surrounding the Wizards’ 2002 second-round pick. NEW: The Post is reporting in their Thursday edition that several teams are interested in acquiring Navarro.

Feel free to move the Navarro talk from the Free Agency Thread to this new one.

More to come, I’m sure…