By: Michael Marzzacco
The Washington Wizards are ready to usher in a new era that has been a long time coming. It’s time to start the process of building from the ground up without skipping steps on the road to sustainable contention. The roster is ready to scrap and win some games many aren’t expecting to win. This isn’t the lose-on-purpose “process” the 76ers implemented. This is trying to win and if you lose, better luck next game. In all 12 players spoke to the local media at the podium. Many of the faces are new while the few that remain are ready to take on leadership roles.
Here are the quotes that stood out from Kyle Kuzma, Jordan Poole, and Bilal Coulibaly:
Kyle Kuzma
On what it means to be a leader:
“Just being myself. Being who I always am. I think that’s the number one thing. When you try to act out of character sometimes and guys see that, it’s a little bit of a turnoff. Just to be myself every day, do what I’ve done for the past seven years of my career. Just come in and bust my butt, lead by example and talk when I see things. Keep it simple.”
On his personal and team goals:
“I mean for me I say it every year, I try to be as great as I can be. That’s every single day and that starts with waking up, eating the right foods, taking care of my body, make sure I put my work in every day, get my treatment every day and, you know, just building. Naturally, personally, that’s for me and same thing for the team too because, you know, we’re in a different type of space. I wouldn’t call this a rebuild, I would call it more of a retool type of situation because we have talented players and everybody has been here since September 5th and that’s very rare for the NBA, I think. We’ve all been playing together so I think naturally being process driven and having a group collectively understand that and know we’re gonna have ups and downs. That’s natural because nobody goes 82-0 but also just being able to just have those building blocks and winning the right way, losing the right way, understanding that we have a sense of purpose out there and just following through collectively as a team, so that’s what I’m looking forward to.”
On what he wants from the new front office:
“Just professionalism. Communication. Being first class. And I mean, that’s what those guys are. Michael (Winger) is a phenomenal leader in that sense. He’s done a great job in his career wherever he’s kind of been at just building not just a cultured environment and that’s really important to him. Also with Will (Dawkins) too. Obviously being at OKC, that’s probably one of the most well run machines within the NBA from an organizational standpoint so I believe that with those guys being here, you’re gonna see those type of trends in Washington.”
Jordan Poole
On adjusting to his new teammates:
“I’d say just meet new players, just kind of figuring out their backstories and who they are as people. Of course, how they play on the court. Just kind of getting a smooth transition so just figuring out who we’re gonna be spending time with in the new season and things of that nature.”
On the excitement of his new role with the Wizards:
“I’m excited as a basketball player. This is the type of stuff that you work for. Really thankful for everything that I learned prior to this part of my career. Being able to come and apply that with such a competitive group of guys. Really great young group. We’ve got some good vets, a really good core. So just being able to just apply everything that I’ve learned and really put it to use in that situation is what I want.”
On if he was taken by surprise with the shakeup of the Golden State Warriors:
“As a fan of sports, you can get traded at any time. We had just won a championship. Players get traded all the time. So it’s kind of something that you prepare for because it’s a part of the biz but when one door closes, another one opens and I feel like something is pretty special.”
Bilal Coulibaly
On the pickup games to help him develop chemistry:
“I love the practices we had, the pickup games for most of them, but yeah had to learn each other’s games, now we kind of got it. Teammates are great, sending me texts every day to know how I’m doing and if I need anything. So yeah, everything is perfect from them.”
How he sees himself contributing to his new team:
“First off as a young guy it’s going to be defensively for sure and I got the ability to do that so I’m going to get my minutes like that.
On how playing with his new teammates has helped him adjust to the size of the NBA:
“Like I said, I’ve been learning each other’s games and yeah it’s easy because they be talking a lot whenever they see I’m like hesitating or don’t know the way of something. They going to talk to me and tell me that you got to do this like that and everything because they got some experience. We young but some guys have experience. They’ve won like championships and everything so yeah they’re here to help me.”
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