Wizards Rumors: Kyle Kuzma On Radar of 3 Teams

There could be some dramatic turnover coming for the Washington Wizards this summer. In addition to a highly-likely Bradley Beal trade, it appears that they might have trouble hanging onto their key unrestricted free agent Kyle Kuzma.

After a breakout season, Kuzma will be declining his $13M player option to reach the open market at the end of the month. Two teams with huge amounts of cap space are now said to be interested—the Indiana Pacers and Houston Rockets—as well as a championship contender, the Phoenix Suns. 

Exciting times across the board 🫡🔒

— kuz (@kylekuzma) June 8, 2023

The Rockets have a league-high $60M in cap space, and are expected to make a big splash in free agency and/or trades this offseason. They're looking to add proven veterans and have the room to do it. The thing is, Houston has a number of big-name UFA and RFA targets on their radar already, including James Harden, Brook Lopez, Dillon Brooks, Austin Reaves, and Cameron Johnson. Where Kuzma fits on that hierarchy is impossible to know at this point. 

The Pacers are expected to have about $27M in cap space this offseason. With a locked-in backcourt of Tyrese Haliburton and Bennedict Mathurin, Indiana will be looking for some frontcourt help this summer, and they'll have room in the salary structure to make Kuzma a very competitive offer. 

The Suns have been mentioned as a strong Kuzma suitor, but the only way they could acquire him would be through a sign-and-trade as they don't have the cap space to make him a competitive offer. 

As for the Wizards, if they do indeed manage to offload Beal's albatross of a contract ($50M+ AAV for four more seasons), they'll be more than able to meet Kuzma's free agent demands, if they really are interested in keeping him. Perhaps that is new GM Michael Winger's plan behind the Beal trade scenarios. At this point however, NBA Insider Marc Stein reports that the Wiz's plans for Kuzma are “not yet clear."

Photo: Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports