The Washington Wizards began the rebuilding process this offseason, trading Bradley Beal, Kristaps Porzingis, and a couple other veterans over the summer to reset their roster and try to build a new foundation.
This season will largely be about evaluating the players they have and figuring out who they want to build around long-term. The headliners on the roster currently are Jordan Poole, who was eventually the top player they got in return for Beal by way of Chris Paul, and Kyle Kuzma, who they re-signed for $100 million this offseason. Both Kuzma and Poole have shown the ability to be quality role players on a winning team, but this year they’ll get the chance to show what they can do in a starring role.
To this point, it’s been a rough start for the Wizards and their two leading stars, which was to be expected, but they have provided a couple of funny moments in this early season. Poole’s lackadaisical three that got blocked by Kristaps Porzingis over the weekend went viral, and on Wednesday they authored another rather hilarious moment when, after getting a steal down 21 in the third quarter to the Hawks, they decided to go for an off-the-backboard alley-oop in transition.
Poole to Kuzma dunk off the glass down 20 points is hilarious. #Wizards #NBA pic.twitter.com/0lX6ewjjYS
— Faisal Hassan (@Faazzla) November 2, 2023
It is objectively funny to do this while down 21, and I think it might be made funnier by how gently Kuzma flushes the dunk home, as he seemed to realize in real time this might not be the best idea. To their credit, in this one, they battled to the end and made it just a 9-point loss, even though the outcome was never actually in doubt.
I do, honestly, appreciate that the Wizards are gonna have some fun this year even if they aren’t going to win a lot, and this figures to be just the beginning of some entertaining moments from this team — whether that’s a good thing or not if you’re a Wizards fan is all about perspective.
