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I think that contract actually looks very good. If they want to keep him, it's pretty cheap, and even with the trade kicker it looks reasonable since it's still a descending salary.

Wow, surprised Kuzma took that deal. The endorsement money must be coming in.

Looks a lot better for the Wiz than originally reported.

FAH1223 wrote:

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Woohoo!


They signed him to a descending contract! We finally have management who actually use long term strategy when dealing with the salary cap!

He might prove to be a very valuable trade chip 2 years from now. $20M a year for a guy who averages 22, 8 and 4 is a good deal at a time when an MLE contract is roughly $15M a year.

The trade kicker is a little disappointing, but probably not much of a factor. He will probably waive it if we are looking to trade him to a better situation. It just gives him the leverage to not so easily be traded to a rotten situation, which is fair. I'm sure Kuzma realizes that the primary rationale for a descending contract is to make him more tradeable later on.

nate33 wrote:

FAH1223 wrote:

Read on Twitter

Woohoo!


They signed him to a descending contract! We finally have management who actually use long term strategy when dealing with the salary cap!

He might prove to be a very valuable trade chip 2 years from now. $20M a year for a guy who averages 22, 8 and 4 is a good deal at a time when an MLE contract is roughly $15M a year.

The trade kicker is a little disappointing, but probably not much of a factor. He will probably waive it if we are looking to trade him to a better situation. It just gives him the leverage to not so easily be traded to a rotten situation.

You've been asking for a descending contract for years, it finally happened!

An overpay for 2 years then fair value in the final 2. Could be worse. I still wonder who out there was going to offer more than 4/80 or 4/90. Seemed like the FA money was drying up fast

Two years from now, Kuzma will be paid $21.5M for the 2025-26 season. Here is how that number compares to the 2025-26 salaries of other wings signed recently:

Michael Porter Jr: $38.3M
Khris Middleton: $36.5M*
Jerami Grant: $32.0M*
Tyler Herro: $31.0M
Andrew Wiggins: $28.2M
Cam Johnson: $27.9M*
Anfernee Simons: $27.6M
RJ Barrett: $27.7M
Terry Rozier: $26.6M
De'Andre Hunter: $23.3M
Kyle Kuzma: $21.5M*
Norman Powell: $20.5M
Duncan Robinson: $19.9M
Dillon Brooks: $19.5M*
Harrison Barnes: $19.0M
Rui Hachimura: $18.2M*
Kevin Huerter: $18.0M
Max Strus: $15.9M*
Grant Williams: $14.4M*

* signed this year

J-Ves wrote:An overpay for 2 years then fair value in the final 2. Could be worse. I still wonder who out there was going to offer more than 4/80 or 4/90. Seemed like the FA money was drying up fast

I'd say it's reasonably fair value for 2 years, then an underpay in the following 2. Overall, I'm pretty pleased with the deal. It should definitely have trade value a couple of years down the road when hopefully we will have enough good young forwards on the roster to replace him.

This is surprisingly good for the Wizards, IMO. Wizards front office gets a good grade for this. The decreasing $ will fit well for a rebuilding team, and represents good value, provided he keeps the same performance numbers, as the years go.

WOW!

nate33 wrote:This really surprises me. It seemed totally out of character relative to all the other moves they have made so far this offseason.

Also, I'm really disappointed that it's 4/$102M rather than something like 4/$80M or 4/$90M which seemed very plausible a few hours ago.

Still, I don't think it's a tragic mis-step or anything. I stand by my argument that Kuzma is the kind of guy that teams really want to have in late playoff series. Big guys that can shoot, make plays and defend 3-4 positions are at a high premium in the playoffs. I think Kuzma can be moved at this salary.

My initial criticisms no longer apply. We did indeed negotiate a 4/$90M contract as I had hoped. And we actually made it a descending contract which will increase in trade value over time. Overall, it's a rock solid deal. It gives us a high usage guy for the early part of our rebuild (we don't have any youngsters that can responsibly take on heavy usage) and a trade chip for the later part of the rebuild. Well done!

I'm still not happy about the deal because I dont like kuzmas style of basketball when we are trying to build a culture, but that's a lot better than previously reported. The other factor is teams haven't been getting as much back for absorbing bad salaries this year as they have in the past, so I would say the opportunity cost is lower than I initially anticipated.

Wow.

That's a team-friendly deal.

Cheap enough that he has trade value or if we decide to keep him long term, that contract won't hurt us.

What is going on here?

A reasonable and strategic use of cap space?

This can’t be the Wizards

It's "Nate finally gets his pony" day. Mazel tov!

Also, well done new FO.

Kuz sounds a bit like Brad, just happy to have a job making $$ playing basketball, the terms are a pleasant surprise.

A descending salary is also good for the player. Kuz is investing most of that $$: the sooner you invest the better overall return.

Kuz is an articulate, interesting fellow. It's hard to imagine much reason for him to improve as a player, though of course anything's possible, but even so it'll be entertaining to have him around. Easy to understand the decision to re-sign him.

payitforward wrote:Kuz is an articulate, interesting fellow. It's hard to imagine much reason for him to improve as a player, though of course anything's possible, but even so it'll be entertaining to have him around. Easy to understand the decision to re-sign him.

We certainly operate on opposite wavelengths, PIF. Because it’s hard for me to imagine a 27 (soon to be 28) year old NOT being willing and able to improve at his craft.