What Will Kyle Kuzma’s Role on the Wizards be This Season?

Newly minted Washington Wizards Kyle Kuzma has had a strange and tumultuous NBA arc up to this point in his career. He burst onto the scene in 2017 and averaged 17.3 points per game in his first two NBA seasons and had many pundits anointing him a rising young star in the league. He spent the latter three years in Los Angeles playing with all-time NBA great LeBron James, where his numbers actually dipped quite a bit due to reduced opportunities. During his last two years as a Laker, he averaged just 12.8 points a game. He saw his place on the team largely relegated to bench role player, and probably felt as though he was living in the shadow of James and Anthony Davis after such a promising start to his career.

Luckily for Kuzma, he now has a fresh start to his career in Washington, and still has an NBA championship to show for his time out west. Kuzma has shown himself to be quite enthusiastic about the change of scenery as well, tweeting that Washington fans could expect “More than what I did the past two years I can tell you that.” as well as that his mentality for this season was “Like a pitbull with no leash.” 

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Kuzma clearly thinks very highly of himself and his abilities on the basketball court, that much is certain. There was even an instance in which Lakerside Chats podcast host Eric Pincus stated, “I think that Kyle Kuzma perceives himself as someone like Jayson Tatum, I think that’s how he views himself. And that’s great. You should view yourself as one of the best young players in the league.”

While his high degree of confidence is admirable and almost necessary in the competitive landscape of the NBA, this comparison is misplaced at best and delusional at worst. Kuzma is a very good NBA player who has the kind of secondary skillset that makes him a player any superstar would love to play alongside. He is a good catch-and-shoot 3-point shooter, moves and cuts off the ball extremely well and has a strong understanding of team defensive concepts. Kuzma’s strongest attributes on the basketball court are not his technical or mechanical abilities, but rather his intangibles and understanding of how to play the game the right way. Jayson Tatum, on the other hand, is a premiere shot-creator in the NBA right now who has dropped 50 points in playoff games and pretty much scores at least 25 points every night. Just 38.3 percent of his 2-pointers and 46.5 percent of 3-pointers were assisted on this past season. Conversely, Kuzma was assisted on 54.5 percent of his 2-pointers and 92.7 percent of his 3-pointers; not exactly the shot portfolio of a young star. 

While Kuzma will undoubtedly add value to the Wizards next season as a capable 3-point shooter and off-ball threat, his expectation that he will ascend to Tatum-esque heights next season will likely be quickly supplanted by reality. The Wizards starting lineup will most likely feature Bradley Beal, Spencer Dinwiddie, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Rui Hachimura and Daniel Gafford, so there is a strong chance he is not even a starter to begin the season. Tack on the fact that he is part of a positional logjam at power forward between Deni Avdija, Davis Bertans and Hachimura, all of whom were on the team last season, and it becomes increasingly clear that he is likely fighting an uphill battle to even get consistent playing time. Kuzma’s faith in his skills is commendable, but Wizards fans can probably expect similar or slightly diminished production relative to what he accomplished with the Lakers last year. Here’s to hoping the Wizards can figure out where he fits in the rotation.

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