BEFORE WE GET STARTED, THANK YOU!

As the season comes to a close, Zaz and I wanted to give a big THANKS to each and every one of you for being a loyal reader of the Wizards Newswire. This was our first year of operation and we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. We will still be sending out weekly emails with offseason updates and developments plus we are working on a bunch of goodies for next season including Wizards swag give-aways, community events, coupons for restaurants around Capitol One and much more. We want to make sure we are building something that people genuinely enjoy so we would like to ask, if it's not too much trouble, for you to answer one question in the poll below.

Once again, thank you for being part of our community and let's all look forward to a productive off-season. You'll be hearing from us. 

Mike & Zaz

This week...

• Wizards go 1-3 in the final week of the season with one costly win against the Heat

• Latest from KP and Kuzma on off-season moves

• We count down our TOP 5 performances of the 2022-2023 (including zingers from Chris and Drew)

• Zaz's Take: Lottery Odds Update

• Dates to keep on your calendar this off-season

Weekly Recap 

Young guys show what they can do in loss against the Bucks 140-128 (Tuesday)

Let's be real...the only reason we all watched this game was to see which of the young guys would show us something to get excited about for next year. Kendrick Nunn had a great night with 24 points on 3-threes, 6 assists and 7 rebounds. Nunn is great isolation scorer who should be utilized more next year for a quick spark off the bench. Jay Huff showed up out of nowhere with 17 points on 3-threes and 9 boards. Johnny Davis continued to impress with 20 points and this poster on Jrue Holiday...

Gafford goes for 25 in Wizards loss against the Hawks 134-116 (Wednesday)

The Hawks were still in the running for a play-in spot while the Wizards had already thrown in the towel.  That said, Daniel Gafford scored a career-high 25 points and showed what he can do offensively (not sure why he was not sitting with the other starters).  Johnny Davis tied his career high with 20 points and Jay Huff added 14 points.  It was nice to see the young guys get some action but Trae Young took care of business scorching the Wizards for 25 points and 16 assists while John Collins added 23 points, clinching a play-in birth for the Hawks. 

COSTLY win against the Heat 114-108 (Friday)

Adding to the confusing strategy that has plagued the Wizard’s all season, they actually won.  With the win, the Wizard’s decreased their odds of winning the lottery and are now tied with Indiana in the lottery seeding (more below).  Miami basically shut down all their key players while the Wizard’s decided to play Daniel Gafford, Cory Kispert, and Delon Wright.  Gafford led the way with 22 points while Kispert added 19 points.  Johnny Davis got another start and had 16 points while Jay Huff had 13 points off the bench.

Rockets come from behind (fortunately) to beat Wizards 114-109 (Sunday)

In the final game of season we had a couple career highs that deserve shout-outs. Luckily the Wizards did not secure this win.  First, let's start with our guy Jordan Goodwin who had a career high 22 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists. Goodwin has been a great development story this season and we look forward to see more of him next season. Quenton Jackson, our G-League signing from earlier this year also had a career high of 19 points, 5 assists plus he did THIS...

Latest from KP and Kuzma on off-season moves

Not a whole lot to report on here but as the regular season comes to a close we are starting to get a glimpse into how things may play out for Kristaps Porzingis and Kyle Kuzma in the off-season. 

It's looking promising that the Wizards will re-sign KP. In an interview with the Washington Post this week Porzingis indicated, again, that he prefers staying in the District. Honestly, I am not sure how much clearer he needs to be:

“This was a great opportunity for me last season when I got traded here...it’s been great...I believe this is a great place for me also, going forward...I’m really at home here.”

Kuuuuuuuz!

As for Kuzma, he is still a bit cagy (Definition: reluctant to give information owing to caution or suspicion). In a recent interview with Chase Hughes of NBC Washington, Kuzma stated that his upcoming decision is not about the money.

"I'm going to get paid regardless anywhere [I go] and here, too. It's about can I come into work every day and be the best version of myself, can I help lead guys, can I make other players better, can I light up rooms? All those things matter when you're trying to be successful."

Top 5 performances of the season 

Yes boys and girls, it has been a rough season to say the least. From losing streaks, trading Rui and multiple blown 20 points leads...but there were some good times which we want you to remember. Roll tape...

"Kyle Kuzma is hotter than fish grease!"

We've see Kyle Kuzma on some crazy hot streaks this season, but on November 10th, 2022 he went to another level! In an early season game against the Dallas Mavericks Kuzma went off for 36 points, 11 rebounds and 6 assists. He shot over 53% from the field and over 45% from beyond the arc. This performance peaked in the 4th quarter when Kuz hit 3 insane threes in a row and our guy Chris Miller called in like a PRO. Must watch below!

"KP's got the mis-match...someone call child-protective services!"

The storyline going into this game was how will the Wizards handle Minnesota's twin towers of Rudy Gobert and KAT. Well KP had the answer. He started off by torching the Timberwolves with 6 threes in the first half alone. In the second half, he went to work down-low and there was nothing Minnesota could do about it. He ended with a career high 41 points on 66% field goal percentage plus 3 blocks and 2 steals. If nothing else, just watch the first 20 second of the video below.

Brad saying to Kuz "You owe me a dinner!"

It's been a volatile season for Bradley Beal this year but on February 28th, in game against the Atlanta Hawks who were tied with the Wizards in Easter Conference standings, a game that really meant something at the time, we got to see why Brad gets paid the big bucks! His numbers were great, 37 points (season high) on 56% shooting but it was his clutch performance on both ends of the court in the last 5 minutes of the game that made this performance truly great.

"Daniel Gafford is putting on his own personal dunk contest here in New Orleans"

Y'all know how much we love Daniel Gafford here at Wizards Newswire so we would be remiss if he was not one of our top 5 performances of the year. On January 28th in New Orleans, the Landlord went off for 21 points (72% from the field) and 5 BLOCKS against the Pelicans! Gafford showed off his repertoire this game from hook shots, post-ups, run-down blocks and a whole lot of slams...but none as good as this lob below from Bradley Beal...

"That is a picture perfect jump shot!"

Even though this game ended with a loss, Cory Kispert's 27 points against the Orlando Magic last week has to be mentioned. Kispert hit a career high 9 three pointers which set the season record for Wizards this year. Fun fact: The most 3 pointers made by a Wizard in a single game was Trevor Ariza in 2014 who hit 10. Either way, big props to Kispert who we hope can break that record next season.

Zaz's Take: Wizards tied with Pacers for LOTTERY seeding. Next step is a coin flip...

With all the regular season games now officially played, the Wizards and Pacers have the same record and as a result a coin toss prior to the lottery will determine their percentage odds. In the best case scenario the Wizards will get a 7.5% chance at the number 1 pick and the worst case scenario they get a 4.5% chance at the number 1 pick. 

In my take two weeks ago on this subject, I mentioned that the best the Wizards could do as far as tanking is to finish with the 5th worst record in the league, and land a 10.5% of winning the lottery.  Since then, the Wizard’s went 2-5 with wins against the Celtics and Heat.  Had we lost those two games, we would have tied Portland for the 5th worst record in the league. 

This is just one more question in strategy to the long list I’ve had all season.  Why did we just give away Rui?  Why doesn’t Gafford close games?  Why do we only go to Beal down the stretch?  Why don’t we have plays for KP to get him going in the second half?  And why is Wes Unseld Junior coming back again after two under achieving seasons?  Many questions remain in the off season, and as always, we’ll be around to provide our thoughts.

Off-season dates to keep on the calendar...

• May 16th: NBA Draft Lottery

• June 22nd: NBA Draft

• June 29: Player Option Deadline for Porzingis & Kuzma

• July 7-17th: NBA Summer League

• October 24th: Start of NBA 2023-2024 Season

Have a great off-season!