Three and a half years ago, the Washington Wizards facilitated one of the NBA’s quintessential offseason moves of the 2020s.
They traded Russell Westbrook to the Los Angeles Lakers in exchange for the majority of the depth that made the 2020-21 Lakers a contender in the first place. In return, the Wizards got a slew of role players back with hopes of returning to the playoffs after a first-round-and-out a few months prior.
Headlining the return was Kyle Kuzma, who had developed from a streaky-shooting forward into a genuine two-way contributor after spending the past three years as a regular member of the LeBron James ring hunt.
He was occasionally lost in the shuffle of the stacked Los Angeles rotation after James and Anthony Davis took the starting frontcourt spots, but braced for the kind of offensive responsibility and freedom he’d long been waiting for after the trade to Washington.
Kuzma admirably stuck it out during Washington’s lean years, suiting up alongside big names Bradley Beal, Kristaps Porzingis and Jordan Poole across several seasons of falling short of the playoffs. Eventually, he won the Wizards’ fan base over with his gutsy (if not sometimes reckless) shotmaking and off-court professionalism with a roster that continued to get younger by the year.
Three straight lottery-bound finishes resulted in an increasing priority on the future— a process that a new front office went all-in on starting two summers back. The Wizards drafted five players in the last pair of drafts, making it clear to the team veterans that they weren’t as much a part of the long-term plan as newly implemented prospects such as Bilal Coulibaly, Alex Sarr, Bub Carrington, Kyshawn George or Tristan Vukcevic.
Poole, once considered one of the league’s less self-aware scorers, took on more of a guiding role alongside Kuzma once he got to DC last season, notably taking a rookie Coulibaly under his wing.
Poole initially struggled to fit in off the ball in Washington while Kuzma averaged a career-high 22.2 points per game. However, their reputations in the DC area had completely flipped by year two.
The shifty shooter found his rhythm as the lead guard with Tyus Jones out of the way while Kuzma looked checked out. His shot selection was wilder than ever while he was nowhere to be found on defense.
His haphazard play was one thing, but Kuz’s clear lack of interest in another year of tanking rubbed many fans the wrong way. This is especially after he rejected a trade to the Mavericks a year before, when he claimed to prefer Washington’s long-term goals over a non-contender in Dallas (the Mavs went on to the NBA Finals after settling on Kuzma’s Wizards teammate, Daniel Gafford).
Now that he’s been traded, how have the Wizards adapted since losing their one-time headliner?
New Voices to Fill the Locker Room
It’s been a few weeks since Washington sent Kyle Kuzma to the Milwaukee Bucks for veteran Khris Middleton and rookie AJ Johnson, dipping further into their emphasis on youth while acquiring the seasoned Middleton to instill winning habits into a raw roster.
His first spin with the Wizards arrived in the team’s first outing exiting the All-Star Break, where he had to match up against, funnily enough, the Bucks— the team he’d spent the last 11 seasons with.
He had earned three All-Star nods and a championship ring in 2021, but spent the last three years battling recurring injuries in his older years. He still has enough juice in the tank to pop off for occasional scoring blitzes between his patience as a pull-up ball handler and proficiency as a multi-level scorer, but nowhere near consistent enough for any contender to rely on him.
Middleton shared his Wizards debut with another decorated veteran, as Marcus Smart made his first appearance in a Washington uniform on the same night. The former Celtics defensive stalwart failed to remain available enough for Memphis but invites some two-way intensity to a Wizards defense among the worst in the league.
That’s not for a lack of trying. The WizKids have just lacked those kinds of gritty vets to hear from in the locker room. Jordan Poole feels like one of the most established players on the team almost out of necessity, with the 25-year-old almost being forced into that sort of position upon landing in the rebuilding situation.
But even he has plenty to soak up from Middleton and Smart.
The pair of NBA Finalists join Malcolm Brogdon — Middleton’s rookie when they were teammates in Milwaukee — as the sole Wizards over 30 in a rotation that features more players on their first contracts than any other in the NBA.
That isn’t to say that they’re surrendering themselves to full-time mentorship positions. They’re all here to play ball, but they plan on building this promising core of homegrown talent.
Middleton said it best after the Wizards’ tight 104-101 loss to the Bucks, one where Middleton’s heroics brought the underdogs within a bucket of upsetting Giannis Antetokounmpo, Damian Lillard and old friend Kuzma. He sees himself in a lot of the rookies and sophomores, and hopes to prove himself valuable off the court while remaining effective with the ball in his hands.
When asked whether he sees himself in the young guys, he responded, “All in different aspects of the game,” he said. “Bub, his midrange, Kyshawn as a shooter, Bilal…I can’t do a lot of what he does. He has a lot of length and size, knows how to play, same with Alex. Everyone knows how special JP is. But, you know, it’s not me coming here and telling them, ‘you should do this.’ It’s just me adding a weapon next to them.”
Young Guys Scaling the Totem Pole
Kyle Kuzma wasn’t exactly Mr. Perfect Attendance during his latter days in Washington. He missed nearly half of the Wizards’ games before he was traded to the Midwest.
His spotty injury history during that span resulted in some eye-opening spot-starts from less-proven players. Coulibaly, Carrington and George particularly faltered whenever Kuzma joined the lineup, turning several blossoming on-ball talents into redundant background characters.
Coulibaly, drafted the highest of the three of them at No. 7 in 2023, has some of the most elite athletic tools of any Wizard. He’s 6-foot-8 and impossible to stop once he goes airborne, but can be easily forgotten if he’s forced to play as a full-time spot-up shooter, where he’s struggling to crack the 30% threshold.
The same can be said of George, a less springy leaper with similar physical measurables. He has much less NBA experience than Coulibaly, and he’s already taken some quick strides as a defender. George was drafted as more of a 3&D weapon than the high-upside Frenchman, and more on-ball reps have revealed more to his game.
Perhaps no one in the core required leather between his fingertips like Carrington, who had to walk the path Poole blazed a season ago as fellow point guards who are clearly better on the ball.
Since Feb. 5, the day Kuz packed his bags, Bub has slashed 52/43/100 while taking 30% of his shots somewhere in one of the three designated midrange zones.
While Carrington has leaned into his pull-up scoring bag, George and Coulibaly have filled the scoring void left by Kuzma with more shot attempts than ever. Coulibaly has struggled from deep (shooting 29%) as he’s developing a more aggressive scoring mindset, which would always take time, but he and George have been devastating as perimeter defenders. The pair have held opposing offenses to 113.4 points per 100 possessions, the third-lowest mark of any Wizards duo (NBA.com).
George, for his part, has run with the increased volume. He’s been Washington’s best shooting forward this month, lacing 44.4% of his threes on 5.4 attempts a night.
The Wizards finally broke into the 10-win club on Monday night— the last NBA team to do so. They’re clearly not looking to make some wild run to the playoffs, but that’s not to say the season is lost. There’s still plenty of time to scope out how much talent this roster is armed with, and the youth movement continues to make this past summer’s draft picks look better by the day.
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