The Official Kyle Kuzma Thread

[payitforward]

Hey, Dorianwrite, have I ever said anything nasty about you?

Hope not, & to tell the truth I don't think I have.
So, maybe you should think about whether you really need to post gratuitous insults. You could even think about apologizing.

[FAH1223]

I don't know how many of you have watched this hour-long conversation between Kuz & Draymond, but if you haven't yet... I recommend it 1000% -- it's extremely interesting throughout!

These are 2 very smart, very thoughtful, very conscious & communicative individuals. Clear about who they are, what they think matters, what they want, & both what & whom they admire or want to critique.

I thought it was absolutely terrific, & I bet you will too.

Watch on YouTube

Too bad Kuz is a barely average player.

[dckingsfan]

Make sure you putter that poast when you serve it.

But... you're not saying you have grandchildren, are you? Just an aspiration, right...? I've got 7 of them.

Can't tell if you're bragging or just stating, but no I'm about 30+ years too young. Actually you're old enough to be my grandfather

Of course he's bragging. He rarely does anything but.

Go PIF! I am jealous.

I am pretty close on age and don't have any grandkids. Any grandfather that doesn't brag about his grandkids has a screw loose (or something).

Reminds me of how much I miss my grandfather. I miss the unconditional love regardless of what kind of knucklehead I was...

[badinage]

I don't know how many of you have watched this hour-long conversation between Kuz & Draymond, but if you haven't yet... I recommend it 1000% -- it's extremely interesting throughout!

These are 2 very smart, very thoughtful, very conscious & communicative individuals. Clear about who they are, what they think matters, what they want, & both what & whom they admire or want to critique.

I thought it was absolutely terrific, & I bet you will too.

Watch on YouTube

Too bad Kuz is a barely average player.

Look, would it be great to have a title team? It would be. No two ways about it.

But some title teams, they’re hard to like. That Cavs team with Lebron and Kyrie and JR Smith — oof. When we had Jordan, that was kinda fun, but Jordan was bigger than the franchise and team, so following the team was weird, and hard, because it was like pulling for the Jordans, not the team I loved and grew up rooting for.

I don’t like those kind of teams.

Kuz is a terrific person, man, teammate. We have a lot of guys you can say that about. I like that. I like it a lot. It goes a long way with me.

[payitforward]

Well said, badinage!

[AFM]

I like Kuz too. Of course, I don't see how he fits with this team's timeline (I mean our actual timeline, not Ted's fantasy world timeline where we are "one player away"). A smart team would trade him for future assets.

[DCZards]

I don't know how many of you have watched this hour-long conversation between Kuz & Draymond, but if you haven't yet... I recommend it 1000% -- it's extremely interesting throughout!

These are 2 very smart, very thoughtful, very conscious & communicative individuals. Clear about who they are, what they think matters, what they want, & both what & whom they admire or want to critique.

I thought it was absolutely terrific, & I bet you will too.

Watch on YouTube

Too bad Kuz is a barely average player.

That could be said about most NBA players.

[gambitx777]

Kuz isn't as bad as people make him out to be. He can score he plays defence and he tried. He's not a terrible player. He's decent imo .

Sent from my SM-G991U1 using RealGM mobile app

[doclinkin]

Too bad Kuz is a barely average player.

That could be said about most NBA players.

HA! By definition of the word "average", um, yeah. Depends how much leeway you give to the word "barely".

[AFM]

most NBA players and almost all Wizards players

[dckingsfan]

Too bad Kuz is a barely average player.

That could be said about most NBA players.

Well, half anyway.

[payitforward]

I don't know how many of you have watched this...

These are 2 very smart, very thoughtful, very conscious & communicative individuals....

Too bad Kuz is a barely average player.

That could be said about most NBA players.

Every NBA player is a great basketball player. Every NBA player can do things on the court &/or with a basketball that are way beyond the reach of ordinary people. They are all supremely talented.

Including Kyle Kuzma. Where his productivity sits on the chart of NBA players has nothing to do with that.

He's also, obviously, a very talented & interesting human being. Which is what makes the conversation worth watching.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Rip Hamilton the Wizard was considered LESS-than-average prior to becoming a Detroit Piston.

Chauncey Billups, Tayshaun Prince and Rasheed Wallace were all perfect complementary skilled teammates. They made Rip better as much as that is possible IIRC Hamilton improved the volume of his threes and his FT attempts. Hamilton had one great strength, his off-ball movement a la Steph Curry. Rip always was a shooter, scorer, and a winner. His career was boosted and so was that of former Nugget, former Celtic Billups. Kuzma has worth as a rebounder, passer, effort player and I think is a winner.

Kuzma is a player I like a lot. Similarly, I liked Rip. I recall lambasting MJ for the bad trade which landed a still decent Jerry Stackhouse. I wouldn't merely give Kuzma away.

I think I'd trade Rui first.

[DCZards]

Too bad Kuz is a barely average player.

That could be said about most NBA players.

Every NBA player is a great basketball player. Every NBA player can do things on the court &/or with a basketball that are way beyond the reach of ordinary people. They are all supremely talented.

Including Kyle Kuzma. Where his productivity sits on the chart of NBA players has nothing to do with that.

He's also, obviously, a very talented & interesting human being. Which is what makes the conversation worth watching.

Yes, every player in the NBA is a great basketball player. They’d have to be in order to earn a spot on an NBA roster.

But not every player in the NBA is a great NBA player. A handful are great, some are very good, some are average and some are below average.

[payitforward]

Yes, absolutely!
What's amazing to me is how small the differences are. Yet, they make a huge difference as you carry them over to team results.

But, even at the team level differences are small. Overall, we allowed our opponents to score only 3% more points than we did. Yet, an average record was 17% better than ours.

Small differences in how good players are lead to big differences in results.

[doclinkin]

Cherry picking stats and grasping at straws to make an article, but still, here's Chase Hughes:

When it comes to defense, all three were part of a team that ranked 25th in defensive rating last season. While there are some encouraging signs one could point to, ultimately the Wizards have to prove they can defend before it can be counted as a strength.

Those encouraging signs would include the fact Kuzma had the best defensive field goal percentage margin (-2.7%) last season among Wizards regulars. Put another way, opponents shot 2.7% worse when guarded by him than they did on the season as a whole.

Kuzma was 28th in the NBA last season among qualified players in that category, tied with Joel Embiid, one of the league's best defensive players. Porzingis (-0.9%) and Beal (-0.5%) were among only four Wizards rotation players to be in the negative (negative is good), the other being Deni Avdija.

Porzingis also had the best defensive rating (110) on the team, per Basketball Reference. Porzingis was also the Wizards' best defensive rebounder (23.3 def reb%) and the team was +4.3 in defensive rebounding percentage when he was on the floor.

That is in addition to his rim protection, which could stand out and change the calculus for other defenders on the court like Beal and Kuzma, who will have some security behind them. Daniel Gafford can also help that cause.

There are also some factors that are harder to define by numbers. Beal, Porzingis and Kuzma will have to find on-court chemistry and how to complement each other offensively, ideally without overlap in terms of shooting spots and also with an equal share of the offense.

Kuzma could be an interesting case there. On one hand, he's proven he can thrive as the third option, having won a championship alongside LeBron James and Anthony Davis in that role. However, he was also much better last season once injuries and trades made him a primary scorer.

The article is mostly on how a Beal-Kuz-Zinger core can work. IT does cite their sub par 3FG shooting last year but pumps up the idea that Beal and Porzingis average 20+ a game, with Kuz just behind at 17. Asking "New Big 3?"

I think Tommy did well by adding both outside shooting and willing passers around this crew. The ball needs to pop around so players know they will get it, stay in motion, set up for easier shots. I'd love to see the version of Beal that used to run off ball all game.

Deni seems like an ideal glue guy/defensive player to supplement players who need touches, though I'd like it better if he could finish on the interior. Or hit a jumper himself. Still, he will make the right read and swing it to the open guy, then defend the toughest match at the other end. Morris, Barton, Wright all pass and shoot from outside. I wish we had a dominant interior finisher, to make teams pay for sending Bigs to guard the Zinger. But I suppose we will backdoor them to death with Kispert and Kuz diving towards the paint.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Less is more

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Cherry picking stats and grasping at straws to make an article, but still, here's Chase Hughes:

When it comes to defense, all three were part of a team that ranked 25th in defensive rating last season. While there are some encouraging signs one could point to, ultimately the Wizards have to prove they can defend before it can be counted as a strength.

Those encouraging signs would include the fact Kuzma had the best defensive field goal percentage margin (-2.7%) last season among Wizards regulars. Put another way, opponents shot 2.7% worse when guarded by him than they did on the season as a whole.

Kuzma was 28th in the NBA last season among qualified players in that category, tied with Joel Embiid, one of the league's best defensive players. Porzingis (-0.9%) and Beal (-0.5%) were among only four Wizards rotation players to be in the negative (negative is good), the other being Deni Avdija.

Porzingis also had the best defensive rating (110) on the team, per Basketball Reference. Porzingis was also the Wizards' best defensive rebounder (23.3 def reb%) and the team was +4.3 in defensive rebounding percentage when he was on the floor.

That is in addition to his rim protection, which could stand out and change the calculus for other defenders on the court like Beal and Kuzma, who will have some security behind them. Daniel Gafford can also help that cause.

There are also some factors that are harder to define by numbers. Beal, Porzingis and Kuzma will have to find on-court chemistry and how to complement each other offensively, ideally without overlap in terms of shooting spots and also with an equal share of the offense.

Kuzma could be an interesting case there. On one hand, he's proven he can thrive as the third option, having won a championship alongside LeBron James and Anthony Davis in that role. However, he was also much better last season once injuries and trades made him a primary scorer.

The article is mostly on how a Beal-Kuz-Zinger core can work. IT does cite their sub par 3FG shooting last year but pumps up the idea that Beal and Porzingis average 20+ a game, with Kuz just behind at 17. Asking "New Big 3?"

I think Tommy did well by adding both outside shooting and willing passers around this crew. The ball needs to pop around so players know they will get it, stay in motion, set up for easier shots. I'd love to see the version of Beal that used to run off ball all game.

Deni seems like an ideal glue guy/defensive player to supplement players who need touches, though I'd like it better if he could finish on the interior. Or hit a jumper himself. Still, he will make the right read and swing it to the open guy, then defend the toughest match at the other end. Morris, Barton, Wright all pass and shoot from outside. I wish we had a dominant interior finisher, to make teams pay for sending Bigs to guard the Zinger. But I suppose we will backdoor them to death with Kispert and Kuz diving towards the paint.

Deni is da glue.

Sent from my SM-A536U using RealGM mobile app

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Kuzma reminds me in some ways of 2001 Richard Hamilton.

Rip won at UConn.

Kuz went from "horrible team Lakers" starter. ... KUZ,

***who had to know Kobe, Rob Pelinka, Jeannie Buss, Magic, Worthy, Kareem, Michael Cooper, Byron Scott, DRAYMOND, Thomas Bryant, LEBRON JAMES, Coach Vogel, TYRONN LUE??, ***

same guy was sixth or seventh man on CHAMPIONSHIP LAKERS

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(Ken from Maryland, ESPN 1420 Honolulu caller, KC from DC suburbs PG County)

[badinage]

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Does YODA measure clutchness? Didn’t think so.

It matters to me.

And — he’s still in his prime. Still room to grow.

Also: a nice as heck guy and, from all accounts, a great teammate.