For next season, at least, Kuzma will get what he has wanted for a while: the opportunity to be the man on a team, rather than a supporting actor. It’s more likely than not that Kuzma will be on his way soon enough as well, at least before his next contract ends. That will allow Coulibaly the freedom to develop his off-ball game and learn without the high expectations of being a top-10 pick, which should make him a more versatile player down the road.įor the longest time, Beal wanted to be in Washington. It makes more sense when noting the Wizards’ desire to take pressure off their 2023 first-rounder, Bilal Coulibaly, by keeping Kuzma, along with newly acquired Jordan Poole, to handle the bulk of the scoring load next season. It makes more sense when you realize Kuzma’s $90 million contract, smartly, decreases as it goes along, making a potential re-routing in a year or two more palatable for other teams, if that option becomes desirable for the Wizards.
Hence, a full-blown ’23 tank job has less appeal. There will be players to take with a top-five pick next June, but their potential upside may be lower than that of the guys who’ve gone high in the 2022 and ’23 drafts. But, it makes more sense when you realize how bad the 2024 draft is currently viewed by most around the league. Look: the idea of another “ middle build” in D.C., even if just for a year or two, makes my ears bleed. But one of the two picks the Clippers got for Griffin ultimately turned into Shai Gilegous-Alexander, who became the primary piece going out in the summer 2019 trade with the Thunder that brought Paul George to L.A. They finished a ho-hum 42-40 and didn’t make the playoffs. Yet midway through the 2017-18 season, the Clippers traded Griffin to the Pistons, for Tobias Harris, Boban Marjanović, Avery Bradley and two draft picks. ( The team’s enthusiasm for Griffin’s supposed place in the pantheon of history became, well, a bit much.) Ultimately, Griffin stayed, signing a five-year, $171 million contract with the Clippers. After the Paul trade, the Clippers, solemnly, pledged their fealty to Griffin in their free-agent pitch to him, indicating they planned to retire his jersey, among other hosannas.
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That season’s team shed Chris Paul in the 2017 offseason, trading him to the Rockets and ending the “Lob City” version of the Clippers led by CP3 and Blake Griffin, who was set to enter free agency.
You could look to the 2017-18 Clippers for insight. That makes bringing Kyle Kuzma back ( on a deal for less money than originally reported – shocking), rather than sending him out along with Bradley Beal and Kristaps Porziņģis, make more sense. Rather than go all-in on being as bad as possible next season in order to have the best chance to secure a high draft pick in 2024, the Wizards will seek to create a culture of competitiveness, a creation of camaraderie and spirit where playing and being together for nine months brings occasional joys and successes along with the bumpy lessons learned from losing. Essentially, the Wizards aren’t going to tear everything down to the studs this season, or possibly even next, as it appeared they would when Michael Winger, Will Dawkins and Travis Schlenk took over. Great reporting from The Athletic’s Josh Robbins Saturday detailed the team’s vision and planning for the short- and long-term future.
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