- It’s hard to pinpoint a single reason for the Wizards‘ losing streak, which reached 10 games with Sunday’s narrow defeat against the Lakers, writes Chase Hughes of NBC Sports Washington. Injuries have been an issue, but the losing continued as Kristaps Porzingis came back Saturday and Bradley Beal returned Sunday.
- Monte Morris was surprised to learn that he had been traded to the Wizards after five years in Denver, per Mike Singer of The Denver Post. Nuggets general manager Calvin Booth admits that he went to dinner with Morris and promised him that he wouldn’t be dealt, but Booth said he couldn’t pass up the chance to acquire Kentavious Caldwell-Pope when the opportunity arose. “I was definitely shocked because I heard different things like I wasn’t going nowhere and stuff,” Morris said. “For me, that just showed me you can’t really put all your eggs in one basket nowhere. Ain’t no hard feelings towards him or nobody. I put that personal side behind me the moment they said the trade was done with. It’s just business.”
Wizards forward Kyle Kuzma told The Washington Post earlier this week that he intends to reach free agency in 2023 rather than signing an extension during the season or picking up his player option for 2023/24. In a conversation with Dave McMenamin of ESPN, Kuzma explained in more detail why he doesn’t expect to sign an in-season extension with Washington.
“It’s not a smart business move,” Kuzma said. “The max I can make if I sign right now is $15 (million). If you look at the market, that’s not market price.”
Technically, Kuzma could get a starting salary of $15.6MM on an extension with the Wizards and could earn about $17.5MM annually over four seasons. But that still may end up being below his value on the open market, given his production so far this season. He has averaged 21.3 PPG, 7.4 RPG, and 3.5 APG in 29 games (35.1 MPG).
With Kuzma on track to become a free agent and his future in D.C. uncertain, it’s possible the Wizards will consider trading him before this February’s deadline — he has reportedly been drawing interest. The 27-year-old told McMenamin that the Wizards have “made it clear that they value me,” but acknowledged that the NBA is business, adding that “everybody in this league is tradable.”
McMenamin notes that Pacers center Myles Turner spoke openly to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski on a podcast about a possible trade to the Lakers and said L.A. should take a “hard look” at it. However, Kuzma said he doesn’t plan to push for a trade to his former team or anywhere else.
“I definitely could (lobby for a trade). But that’s very immature,” Kuzma said. “I’m not a really immature person. I like to do business in a professional way. So, I would never do that.”
Kuzma went on to say that he values the time he spent with the Lakers earlier in this career and still frequently watches his old teammates on television when he can, but he’s not expecting to be dealt back to Los Angeles this season.
“I haven’t heard anything,” Kuzma said when asked by McMenamin about a possible trade. “The Wizards love me. It’s going to be really tough to do. Do the Lakers have anything (to make a deal)?”
Here’s more from Kuzma, who also spoke to Melissa Rohlin of FoxSports.com about his current situation in Washington and his Lakers history:
On why playing behind two superstars (LeBron James and Anthony Davis) in Los Angeles was a “double-edged sword”:
“I believe that it was some of the best things to ever happen to me, you know, getting drafted, being a Laker, having that platform. Having millions and millions of people globally know who you are, that’s a blessing. That’s part of being a Laker. Learning from LeBron, winning a championship — it’s all been great.
“But at the same time, I always look back and wish I would’ve gotten the fairer end of the stick a little bit, just with my role and how much I sacrificed. It’s cool to sacrifice. That’s the only way you win championships, everybody has to sacrifice. But, just getting the fairer end of the stick, I feel like I never really got (that). But everything happens for a reason. I’m here now (in Washington), and I’ve been able to expand my game and flourish.”
On why he feels like he didn’t get the “fair end of the stick” with the Lakers:
“In the position I was in, it was tough being that little bro on the team. One night, you might get 10 shots. The next night, maybe they just need you to rebound. The next night, you might get 15 minutes. The next night, you might get 29 (minutes). You never know. That’s (not getting) the fair end of the stick.
” … When I was in the moment and I was young, (I was) frustrated a lot of nights because, man, I really want this. I really want this. Everybody who knows me knows I’m really competitive. I really love basketball. A lot of nights it bothered me that I never got the chance to do what I’m doing now, play me.”
On why the trade to the Wizards has ultimately been the best thing for his career, despite the team’s struggles:
“I needed this. This move here has been so instrumental in my life, just being more mature. I love basketball, but I love it even more now. I love my craft, I love getting in the gym every single day. Being in the gym, being in this type of situation — seeing how good I can become has made me be really obsessive with trying to improve and better myself.”
Based on the terms of Kyle Kuzma‘s contract with the Wizards, he could sign a veteran extension at any time this season or could pick up his player option for the 2023/24 season to delay his free agency until 2024. However, he’s currently not planning to take either of those paths.
According to Ava Wallace of The Washington Post, Kuzma said in an interview that he doesn’t expect to sign an in-season extension and that he intends to turn down his ’23/24 player option in order to become an unrestricted free agent this coming summer.
Kuzma’s plans don’t come as a major surprise. He’s in the midst of a career year, averaging 21.4 points, 7.5 rebounds, and 3.6 assists per game in his first 28 contests (35.0 MPG) with a shooting line of .462/.343/.692. At age 27, he’s still very much in his prime, and his value has never been higher — he could be one of the best players to reach the UFA market in 2023.
Kuzma is currently earning $13MM, which is also what his 2023/24 option is worth. It’s safe to assume he’ll be able to exceed that figure on a new contract. An extension with the Wizards could max out at approximately $70MM over four years, but based on the way he has performed so far this season, it certainly seems possible that Kuzma can top that deal as a free agent too. In other words, it’s in his best interest financially to become a free agent next offseason even if he’s interested in remaining in D.C. long-term.
“Those are just business decisions,” Kuzma said, according to Wallace.
Although Kuzma’s intention to become a free agent doesn’t mean he wants to leave the Wizards, the club will have to proceed cautiously to avoid losing the former first-round pick for nothing when his contract is up.
If president of basketball operations Tommy Sheppard and his front office aren’t confident in their ability to retain Kuzma beyond this season, it makes sense to gauge his value on the trade market. Kuzma’s name has already popped up in some trade rumors and will certainly do so again as the February 9 deadline approaches.
The Wizards may get some reinforcements in their backcourt within the next week. As Josh Robbins of The Athletic (Twitter link) relays, head coach Wes Unseld Jr. said on Wednesday that he’s “hopeful” Delon Wright will be able to return at some point during the team’s current six-game road trip, which runs through December 23.
Sidelined since October 25 due to a hamstring strain, Wright is trending in the right direction, according to Unseld. The veteran guard is perhaps Washington’s strongest perimeter defender, so the hope is that he can help improve a unit that has ranked 28th in the NBA in defensive rating during the club’s current eight-game losing streak.
Meanwhile, injured Wizards forward Rui Hachimura is also making progress, though he doesn’t appear quite as close to returning to action. According to Robbins (Twitter link), Unseld said on Wednesday that Hachimura has progressed to doing one-on-one contact work as he makes his way back from a bone bruise in his ankle. The former lottery pick last played on November 18.
Here’s more from around the Southeast:
- Although the Wizards entered the season hoping to be a playoff team, Robbins could envision them becoming sellers at the trade deadline if things continue to go south, he writes in his latest mailbag for The Athletic. As Robbins observes, the team will have to go 30-23 the rest of the way to even finish at .500, so the front office should “at least reconsider” its original plan.
- John Collins‘ name continues to pop up in trade rumors, but it sounds like the Hawks big man will remain on the shelf for the foreseeable future. Speaking on Wednesday to reporters, including Lauren L. Williams of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Twitter link), head coach Nate McMillan said Collins hasn’t done much running or cutting and has mostly been limited to spot shooting as he recovers from a left ankle sprain.
- The Heat‘s current road trip, which opened with stops in Indiana, Oklahoma City, and Houston, has been something of a “nostalgia tour” for guard Victor Oladipo, who previously played in all three of those cities, writes Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel. Reflecting on the twists and turns his career has taken so far, Oladipo said he’s focused on forging a new path in Miami. “My journey, my purpose is not done,” he said.
Celtics forward Jayson Tatum is the choice for Most Valuable Player one-third of the way through the 2022/23 NBA season, Nekias Duncan of BasketballNews.com argues in an early-season award ballot. Tatum is averaging over 30 points, eight rebounds, and four assists per game with terrific shooting numbers and is a candidate for an All-Defensive spot on the other end of the floor, according to Duncan, who contends that doing all that for the NBA’s best team makes the MVP award Tatum’s to lose.
Duncan also checks in on the NBA’s other award races, selecting Bucks center Brook Lopez as the top candidate for Defensive Player of the Year, Magic forward Paolo Banchero as the early Rookie of the Year frontrunner, and Bucks forward/center Bobby Portis as his Sixth Man of the Year choice, among others.
Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- Which teams should be throwing in the towel on 2022/23 and focusing on next year’s draft? John Hollinger of The Athletic breaks down the potential tankers, ranging from the “pull the plug already” group (the Pistons and Hornets) to the “one injury away” tier, which includes playoff hopefuls like the Heat, Mavericks, and Raptors.
- A panel of SI.com basketball writers – including Howard Beck, Chris Mannix, and Chris Herring – prepared for NBA trade season by identifying a player they expect to be moved, picking an intriguing team to watch, and naming a trade they’d like to see happen this season. Three of the five panelists pointed to a Bradley Beal deal as one they’re hoping for, even if it’s probably unlikely in the first season of his five-year contract with the Wizards.
- Michael Pina of The Ringer poses and explores nine questions related to the trade market, including whether the league-wide parity we’ve seen so far this season will catalyze or stifle negotiations. Like those SI.com writers, Pina would welcome some action on the Beal front, referring to the union between the All-Star guard and the Wizards as “the most frustrating dead-end relationship in the entire NBA.”
- The Wizards will be playing without their two leading scorers on Wednesday in Denver, as Bradley Beal (hamstring) and Kristaps Porzingis (low back soreness) have been ruled out, tweets Ava Wallace of The Washington Post. Beal was medically cleared to return, but clearly needs a bit more time to ramp up his conditioning. He has now missed five straight games with the injury, while Porzingis will miss just his second game of the ’22/23 season.
- Josh Robbins of The Athletic details why Kyle Kuzma‘s contract situation has the Wizards in a tough spot. As Robbins writes, Kuzma is limited by the CBA rule regarding veteran contract extensions, so the maximum the Wizards can offer him in an extension is $69.9MM over four years. He’s averaging 21.3 PPG, 7.7 RPG and 3.6 APG, and he figures to land $20MM+ annually when he opts out of his $13MM player option in the summer to become a free agent (a mere formality at this point), so Washington has to decide if they want to risk losing him for nothing or trade him away to recoup assets. The Wizards do hold his Bird Rights, so they can offer him an additional year — and more money — than a rival team could.
- The Wizards have lost 10 of their past 11 games, including seven straight. When asked about the team’s morale, Kuzma said it’s “not as bad as you think,” according to Robbins. The veteran forward added that he’s disappointed in the results, but not the team’s effort. “I mean, it does suck to lose,” Kuzma continued. “Everybody in here does feel s–t about losing, but we’re competing. It’s not a lack of effort. If it was a lack of effort, it’d probably be way worse. But as long as we’re competing every single night, we’ve given ourselves a chance. You’ve just got to tip your cap and just live with it.”
Guard Bradley Beal has been cleared to resume all on-court activities after dealing with a right hamstring strain, but he’s out Monday against Brooklyn, the Wizards announced (via Twitter).
Beal sustained the injury on December 4 while diving after a loose ball against the Lakers. He was reevaluated today and subsequently cleared by Washington’s medical staff.
Head coach Wes Unseld Jr. previously stated that Beal had a low-grade strain, so he was relatively fortunate that it wasn’t more severe. Monday will mark his fourth consecutive missed game, and “his status moving forward will be determined by his clinical evolution,” according to the Wizards.
The 29-year-old is in the first year of a five-year, $251MM contract after re-signing with the Wizards as a free agent this past summer. Through 18 games, he’s averaging 22.9 PPG, 3.7 RPG, 5.4 APG and 1.2 SPG on .522/.352/.873 shooting.
After winning six of seven during a November stretch, Washington has lost nine of its past 10 games, including six straight. Wizards are currently 11-16, the No. 12 seed in the East, trailing the No. 10 Heat by one game for the final play-in spot.
There’s plenty of interest in Wizards forward Kyle Kuzma as the NBA’s unofficial trade season begins this week, according to Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report.
Pincus cautions that Washington hasn’t decided to move Kuzma, but there’s a risk he’ll leave in free agency next summer if he declines his $13MM player option for 2023/24 as expected. General manager Tommy Sheppard recently indicated that the Wizards intend to re-sign Kuzma, but Pincus points out that the team already has two established scorers in Bradley Beal and Kristaps Porzingis and is off to an 11-16 start.
Pincus adds that Kuzma could be one of the five best players on the free agent market and may become too expensive for Washington to keep.
“He wants out,” an NBA source said told Pincus. “He’s looking for over $20 million a season and in a big market (or with a contender).”
Pincus cites the Kings, who tried to trade for Kuzma in 2021 before the Lakers sent him to the Wizards, as a team to watch. Sacramento can’t unconditionally offer a first-rounder earlier than their 2028 pick, but Pincus believes a deal could be constructed around Harrison Barnes and either that future pick or a young prospect such as Davion Mitchell.
The Suns may see a Kuzma trade as a chance to finally unload Jae Crowder, Pincus notes, suggesting Crowder and Cameron Johnson, who is recovering from knee surgery, may be enough to get a deal done. Johnson will be a restricted free agent next summer, which would allow the Wizards to match any offer he might get.
Pincus also believes the Knicks have interest in Kuzma, who is represented by CAA, the former agency of team president Leon Rose. Obi Toppin could be the centerpiece of a deal, according to Pincus, who adds that New York has young players such as Immanuel Quickley and Cam Reddish to offer, along with a wealth of draft assets.
Wizards fans gave Clippers guard John Wall a thunderous ovation in his return to Washington Saturday night (video link from Andrew Greif of The Los Angeles Times). Wall made his first start of the season, replacing the injured Reggie Jackson, as the crowd got to welcome him back for the first time since he was traded to Houston in 2020.
Wall scored 13 points as L.A. pulled out a tight win and appeared to say, “This is my city,” after hitting a step-back jumper, according to Ava Wallace of The Washington Post (Twitter link). He admitted to reporters that he felt the impact of being back in the arena where he became a star, tweets Candace Buckner of The Washington Post.
“Looked over at the seats where my mom used to be sitting at and the other four seats where my family used to sit at and just try to fantasize and be in that moment for a minute,” said Wall, whose mother passed away in December 2019. “Just being here – like I said, still so surreal. Still don’t feel right, still feel different. But like I said, I enjoyed every part of this game and I’m glad we got a win. It was a lot of chills, tried not to cry, hold back a lot of emotions and kind of be in the moment of the game and try to win.”
There’s more on the Clippers:
- Kawhi Leonard played 30 minutes on Saturday, and coach Tyronn Lue indicated that his minutes restriction will eventually be lifted, Greif tweets. “It’s going to take some time, it’s going to be a process, but the biggest thing for him is just getting over it mentally,” Lue said, “because I know he said he feels good and feels well but going through those type of injuries myself, I understand it takes a little time to get over that mental hurdle.”
- Norman Powell has progressed to on-court workouts in his recovery from a groin injury, Greif adds (via Twitter). Lue said Powell is getting better, but still needs more time.
- The Clippers have struggled to stay above .500 with their stars in and out of the lineup, but Lue understood it wouldn’t be easy to bring Leonard back after missing a full season with an ACL injury, writes Mirjam Swanson of The Orange County Register. Lue said patience will be needed for the team to approach its championship expectations. “And so it’s going to take a little time,” he said, “just figuring out the rotations and who plays well with who and trying to figure out how to split Kawhi’s minutes and what’s best for the team and what’s best for him as well.”
The Wizards are getting hammered by injuries at a particularly bad time, writes Chase Hughes of NBC Sports Washington. The team only had nine players available for Friday’s game at Indiana, which was its eighth loss in its last nine games. Washington is in the midst of a stretch where 17 of 23 games are on the road, so it needs as many healthy players as possible.
Bradley Beal sat out his third straight game Saturday with a low-grade strain of his right hamstring, but he’s expected to be reevaluated soon, Hughes adds. Kristaps Porzingis was listed as questionable going into Friday’s game with a left ankle issue, but he wound up playing nearly 35 minutes as coach Wes Unseld Jr. basically used a seven-man rotation.
There’s more on the Wizards:
- Rui Hachimura‘s progress has been slow as he works to recover from a bone bruise in his right ankle, tweets Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star. Unseld said Friday that Hachimura has been able to do some non-contact drills, but he hasn’t started playing 3-on-3 or 5-on-5.
- Jordan Goodwin has taken advantage of the opportunity provided by the injuries, notes Bijan Todd of NBC Sports Washington. The second-year guard posted career highs with 19 points and five steals Friday night. Goodwin, who’s on a two-way contract, has been producing whenever he’s been called on all season, and Todd believes he might have a role in the rotation even when the rest of the backcourt returns.
- In a video, Hughes examines why Will Barton‘s numbers have declined since he was acquired from the Nuggets in an offseason trade. Barton averaged 14.7 points, 4.8 rebounds and 3.9 assists last season in Denver, but he has fallen to 7.3/3.1/2.5 through his first 25 games with Washington and his shooting percentages are also way down. Hughes notes that Barton is adjusting to a bench role after being a starter with the Nuggets, but also points out that he’s not driving to the basket nearly as often as he used to.