This past summer, Kyle Kuzma, Montrezl Harrell, and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope were all traded to the Washington Wizards in exchange for Russell Westbrook. It was a blockbuster deal that many fans couldn’t even believe at the time. Now, the Wizards are 2-0 to start the season while the Lakers are 0-2. While it is too early to tell who won the deal, it remains obvious that the Wizards have better team chemistry right now.
Recently, Kuzma spoke to reporters about the trade that brought him to the Wizards, and as you can see, he has a pretty interesting perspective on it all. As he explains, the Wizards needed to make the deal as they have always struggled with retaining players. Had they not made the trade, they could have lost Westbrook for nothing, which would have been a huge disaster.
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“I mean, you gotta do that trade 10 out of 10 times. If you have an opportunity to get five good basketball players for one, it makes sense,” Kuzma said. “Granted, [Westbrook is] obviously a Hall of Fame player and everything. He’s an unbelievable player, don’t take that wrong,” Kuzma said. But especially for a team like Washington, if you look at the track record from the past couple of years, it hasn’t necessarily been enough ballplayers here… It’s smart, you have to do it if you’re a GM.”
So far, Kuzma has been solid in his new role, and if the Wizards keep up this pace, they could find themselves back in the postseason. The Eastern Conference is pretty stacked this year, however, so it should be an interesting season all around.
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