The Washington Wizards are off to a 2-0 start for the second time in as many years under head coach Wes Unseld Jr., but the dynamic surrounding the team is night and day. It is well documented that after an inflated 10-3 start last season, the locker room crumbled resulting in Spencer Dinwiddie, Montrezl Harrell, Davis Bertans, and Aaron Holiday getting traded out of D.C. at the deadline. This season with the influx of mature veterans like Monte Morris and Will Barton who know Unseld from Denver, Taj Gibson with 13 years of NBA wisdom, as well as Delon Wright (a former teammate of Kyle Kuzma like Morris, but at very different ages) who is a willing defender, the Wizards are all buying into Unseld’s plan to win.
“We’re all just playing the right way. We have a veteran team, we have a team that we all like each other,” Kuzma said following a 102-100 victory over the Chicago Bulls in Washington’s home opener on Friday. “That’s the biggest thing, you can tell we like each other. Everybody is moving the ball, playing for each other. We hold each other accountable. We may scream at each other, but it’s not a barking match and it’s all coming from a right place of love and understanding we all have the same agenda, trying to win. I just hope that we can continue to keep that mentality.”
It has been a softly spoken theme throughout the last two months dating back to August when the Wizards held an unofficial mini-camp in Los Angeles that this season’s roster is very close. That was often without directly making a comparison to last season. However, Kuzma is now starting to speak on it directly without really being probed too much by media questioning. His willingness to be transparent is understandable because he was not a fan of Dinwiddie attempting to scapegoat him by saying Kuzma’s touches came at the expense of himself playing aggressively which the team needed.
“I just hope it’s sold out when we come back from Cleveland,” Kuzma started on the Capital One Arena crowd before drifting in a different direction. “I think this is the year we have a pretty solid team, partly just because we like each other. Last year, couldn’t say that at the start. Obviously, we started 10-3, but I couldn’t say that [we like each other]. This year, when you play for each other, you’re going to give yourself a chance every single night and we demand that of each other. It’s just really fun playing with this ball club.”
Kyle Kuzma contrasts last year's team with this year’s 🤔
"I think this is the year we have a pretty solid team, partly just because we like each other. Last year, couldn’t say that." pic.twitter.com/dPvBqeWHZB
— Hoop District (@Hoop_District) October 22, 2022
Washington had a 17-point advantage midway through the third quarter against Chicago but saw that lead vanquish to a mere 3 entering the fourth quarter after the Bulls went on a 20-6 run. With less than five minutes to go in the game, the Wizards led by nine but the Bulls tied the game at 98 and 100 in the final 79 seconds and even had a chance to win at the buzzer but DeMar DeRozan’s three-point attempt barely rimmed out. Of course, DeRozan hit an improbable double-clutch game-winner at the buzzer on New Year’s Day 2022 in DC last season that brought back some PTSD when Friday’s shot was traveling through the air. Nonetheless, the Wizards’ ability to stay positive amidst the runs they gave up helped them hold on.
“We were just positive. Every timeout, positive. Hold your heads [up], it’s ok, keep the storm going. That was much different from last year,” Kuzma again willingly contrasted the vibes between last season and the home opener.
With such openness from Kuzma in his post-game media availability that preceded Bradley Beal’s, the $251 million man was bound to be asked about the idea that the last two Wizards rosters have enjoyed each other to quite different degrees.
“We liked each other last year too,” Beal prefaced. “[Now] we have guys who all buy into what Wes wants. It’s not a lot of jawing back, not a lot of pushback on what we want. It’s getting what he wants done first and if we need to make adjustments, make adjustments later. We’re not questioning his methods. We’re all accepting the criticism, 1 through 15. It’s just pure joy when we’re out there and we have a chance to make this team something that we can build it into. Everybody has bought into that and that’s been the beauty in that for sure.”
I’m sure there was not going to be this level of negativity surrounding last year’s roster camaraderie when things were going well at 10-3 (heck Beal and Harrell were going to start a podcast together), but it tracks that the train quickly fell off the tracks with little shot of self-correcting due to the lack of cohesion. The 2022-23 Wizards have yet to hit adversity that will ultimately test whether they are truly connected at a deeper level, but while things are happy at 2-0, they are indicating they’ll be better suited to overcome obstacles this season.
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