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Kyle Kuzma has taken on a bigger role ever since he got traded to the Washington Wizards. His scoring is up as he tries to help Bradley Beal get the team back into the playoffs. Although they have a record of just 11-13, they have a camaraderie that is much improved.
Kuzma told Shams Charania of The Athletic that he learned a lot about team chemistry when he won the championship with the Los Angeles Lakers. He got brutally honest about the chemistry during his first season with the Wizards, using some NSFW language.
“That championship year taught me so many things about the game of basketball; just doing all the little things, how much chemistry and camaraderie means,” Kuzma said to The Athletic. “If you look at our team last year, we were so up and down, because we didn’t like each other. It was a sh*t show. This year, yeah, we’re still working through some things, but we have a genuine group, an authentic group. We actually like each other. It’s a lot of parity in the NBA right now. When you look at the schedule, there’s a lot of teams that are two games above .500 or .500, especially in the East. So we’ve got to stay the course.”
The Wizards of last season did not get along well, leading to a firesale of sorts at the trade deadline that saw the departure of several players and the arrival of Kristaps Porzingis. This year's team is showing some improvement on both sides of the ball and playing a little more up-tempo.
Kyle Kuzma will be tested as Beal misses a week due to a hamstring injury. He is averaging 20.6 points, 7.7 rebounds and 3.6 assists while shooting a career-best 45.9 percent from the field. As both a leader and a player, he is a huge factor in the Wizards' success moving forward.
