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Poole and Kuz are so bad it defies belief.
The Wizards are a profoundly unserious team being led by the funniest 1-2 punch in the NBA in Jordan Poole and Kyle Kuzma. That much we already knew, but the reality of what they’re doing is beyond impressive.
Net rating is arguably the best way to measure a player’s individual impact. It’s a pretty simple metric: If you score more than you allow while on the court, then great! If not, something is off. The Poole/Kuzma pairing is something else.
Being at the bottom of this chart is bad, but my goodness the reality is so much worse than even this graph shows. According to Basketball Reference Poole and Kuzma are a combined -32.1 on the season in net rating. Dig a little deeper and it gets even worse, because they have combined for:
43 turnovers due to bad passes
31 shot attempts which were blocked
They both allow 122 points per 100 possessions defensively
A value over replacement player (VORP) of -0.3
So, to put it simply: Kuzma and Poole aren’t even meeting the threshold of being two average NBA players right now when they’re on the floor together — and the Wizards are paying them a combined $53M, which is more than the next FIVE highest paid players combined.
Even Kyle Kuzma is aware the team’s defense is atrocious.
Kyle Kuzma was asked by @TheAthleticNBA how this game got out of hand. His answer: “We can’t guard a stop sign. That’s kind of really what it boils down to. We let anybody get whatever they want on us. So, until we change that, then that’s probably going to be the result.”
— Josh Robbins (@JoshuaBRobbins) November 30, 2023
This is not Kuzma on an island bemoaning the lack of defense by the Wizards. He’s a huge part of it. He’s currently a -2.5 in defensive box score on the season, one of the worst on the Wizards — bested only among starters by Corey Kispert, and (you guessed it) Jordan Poole at -2.9.
These are two player who are legitimately leading the team at 23.4 and 17.4 points per game respectively, but their defense is so non-existent that it’s tantamount to them combining for 20.8 points-per-game when they’re on the floor together.
I’d like to say “never change, Wizards” — but damn, you guys gotta change.
