Kyle Kuzma clearly doesn’t fit the Milwaukee Bucks‘ new timeline.
They traded away Giannis Antetokounmpo to build for the future, and Kuzma is unlikely to be around Milwaukee that much longer. The thing is, he might not fit the present much, either.
Kuzma is in the Bucks’ starting lineup to open the season, but that’s coming at the expense of embracing their younger players, namely the promising Kel’el Ware who they got in the trade with the Heat.
As long as Kuzma around, Ware’s development is going to be stunted a little bit. But the Bucks seem to have an alternative motive here.
Bucks Trying to Trade Kyle Kuzma
There’s some belief that the Bucks are simply trying to showcase Kuzma.
“Ware wasn’t in the Bucks’ starting lineup to open the season while they try to dupe another team into thinking Kyle Kuzma has trade value,” The Athletic’s John Hollinger wrote on Friday.
As Hollinger implies there, for this Bucks strategy to work, Kuzma actually has to play well enough for another team to think he’s worth acquiring.
In the meantime, Ware isn’t playing a ton in the early going.
“The third-year big man had an impressive age-21 season in Miami but was limited to 22 minutes a game because of the presence of Bam Adebayo,” Hollinger writes. “That could still be a factor in Milwaukee, where Myles Turner is the incumbent five; Ware only played 14 minutes in the Bucks’ opener. Nonetheless, the pairing of Ware and Turner seems a bit more effortless, given Turner’s 3-point game and the fact that the Bucks don’t have a lot of other options.”
Hollinger’s tongue-in-cheek Kuzma sentence makes a clear point, though — the Bucks should be letting Ware shine.
High Praise for Kel’el Ware
Hollinger led the Grizzlies front office before his writing tenure at The Athletic, so he knows what he’s talking about, and he loves Ware’s game.
“Ware might be their most talented player at this point,” Hollinger wrote in regards to the Bucks’ roster. “He had a monstrous 21.1 percent rebound rate in Miami last season, shot 39.5 percent from 3 and threw down 137 dunks. While I’m sure the Bucks are excited to see what Jaime Jaquez Jr., Tyler Herro and Kasparas Jakučionis can do for them, I think Ware’s upside scenario is the most exciting part of the Antetokounmpo trade that doesn’t involve draft picks.”
He’s right that there isn’t anything Ware can’t do on the basketball floor. Hopefully Bucks fans will get to see more of him out there soon.
Bucks’ Kyle Kuzma Trade Decision Impacting Starting Lineup