WASHINGTON — For weeks, the Washington Wizards shot down trade offers for Kyle Kuzma, signaling team officials’ belief that they will re-sign Kuzma when he reaches unrestricted free agency this summer.
But whether the Wizards’ professed confidence was mere posturing to drive up Kuzma’s value on the trade market remained unclear. For that reason, rival executives viewed the 2022-23 trade deadline as a line of demarcation for Kuzma’s long-term future in Washington. If Wizards officials had any doubts about Kuzma’s intentions, conventional wisdom held the Wizards would trade him before the deadline rather than risk losing him for no one or no draft picks in return in July.
Now the rest of the league has its answer about Kuzma.
All of Washington’s trade-deadline heavy lifting, as it turned out, occurred on Jan. 23, when it traded forward Rui Hachimura to the Los Angeles Lakers for guard Kendrick Nunn and three future second-round picks and generated a trade exception worth approximately $6.3 million.
The Wizards did not trade Kuzma or make any other moves in the hours before the deadline expired Thursday afternoon.
“He’s obviously still a Wizard,” team president and general manager Tommy Sheppard said, referring to Kuzma. “And I’m not kidding when I say this: We try to be very informed before we do any decision.”
Washington will enter free agency as the sole holder of Kuzma’s Bird rights, giving the team the ability to re-sign him to a first-year salary up to the maximum player salary for a player with six years’ tenure in the league. The Bird rights also will allow Washington to offer Kuzma a contract up to five years in length, while all other teams would be limited to offering him a maximum of four years.
Originally acquired in 2021 in a blockbuster five-team trade, Kuzma has benefited from coach Wes Unseld Jr. giving him significant freedom as a scorer and playmaker. This season, Kuzma is averaging career highs of 21.3 points, 4.0 assists and 17.8 field goal attempts per game.
When The Athletic recently asked Kuzma whether he would consider remaining with the Wizards for the long term, he answered, “One hundred percent. They showed me love. They have allowed me to have a platform to show my game and show the league I’m not just a role player. I’m someone that’s arriving right now. That’s the biggest thing for me.
“I want to keep elevating. Having a leadership position, having somewhere where I’m developing and playing my game and my role and I’m getting better every single game — that’s what I care about.”
Whether re-signing Kuzma would be the right move is a fair question to ask, especially if he would command a contract equal to the contract that John Collins signed in 2021 to remain with the Atlanta Hawks, a five-year deal worth $125 million. Kuzma’s points per game and assist averages are impressive, but they come at the costs of inefficient shooting and a high turnover rate.
The Wizards also face a broader question: Is their “big three” nucleus of Bradley Beal, Kristaps Porziņģis and Kuzma good enough to reach the playoffs without the aid of the Play-In Tournament? Because of injuries, Beal, Porziņģis, Kuzma have played in 25 games together, with Washington compiling a mere 12-13 record in those games.
Kuzma missed the Wizards’ last two games because of a sprained left ankle, but he appears on track to play in Saturday’s game against the Indiana Pacers.
Washington holds a 25-29 record overall and entered Thursday in 11th place in the East. The Chicago Bulls and Toronto Raptors, the two teams directly ahead of the Wizards in the standings, did not sell off key pieces before the deadline, which, in theory, will make the Wizards’ quest to reach this year’s postseason more difficult.
At the same time, however, Sheppard did not want to make a deal that would have helped in the short term but would have diminished the team’s collection of assets for a potential move as early as the 2023 NBA Draft.
It’s possible that by adding the three second-round picks and the trade exception from the Hachimura trade, and not parting with any other players on the roster, the Wizards will be able to swing a deal in June that would net them a high-level player in a distressed situation.
“I’m pleased where we’re at,” Sheppard said. “Not losing draft capital for something that wouldn’t be as meaningful gives us a lot more to work with this summer. We’ve got a lot of leads and head starts on deals for the summer if we wanted to, and one thing that’s very gratifying and validating about the trade deadline is you find out the value of your players around the league. It makes you appreciate them that much more for your own team. We had calls on eight players on our team and sincere offers on a lot of these guys. It just made me feel like, ‘Hey, we’re on the right track.’ You’ve got to be patient, and sometimes it takes a little bit longer than you want it to.”
Whether the Wizards have enough coveted players and enough coveted draft picks to swing a franchise-changing trade in June, or later, is a matter of debate. Rival executives painted a pessimistic picture when they discussed the Wizards’ trade possibilities for a recent article in The Athletic. Part of that skepticism originates from the Wizards owing the New York Knicks a protected first-round pick; until that obligation is met, perhaps as early as this summer but potentially as late as 2026, the Wizards will have a limited number of first-round picks available for trade.
By trading Hachimura without taking on financial commitments beyond this season, Sheppard cleared a financial pathway without going into the luxury tax to re-sign Kuzma this summer, pay Beal the $46.7 million he’s owed next season and pay the $36.0 million owed to Porziņģis if Porziņģis exercises his player option for next season.
“We did all of this with that in mind: To see that core and go (with them in the future),” Sheppard said. “It’s a partnership. We have to show them this is the right place for them, and by what they do, (they have to) show us that they’re the right guys for us, and we feel they are. I think they feel the same.”