The second act of Kyle Kuzma’s career is over after the Washington Wizards traded him to the Milwaukee Bucks for Khris Middleton, per ESPN’s Shams Charania. The Bucks are also sending AJ Johnson to Washington, while Milwaukee will also acquire Patrick Baldwin Jr. and second-round draft compensation.
The move ends a four-season tenure for Kuzma in D.C., where the Wizards continue to languish at the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings with little hope of a turnaround, in either this season or the next few years. Futility is nothing new for Washington, which hasn’t posted a record above .500 since 2017-18.
The Wizards had been known to be interested in trading Kuzma for a while.
Meanwhile, the Bucks’ search for more support for the superstar tandem of Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard has led to the end of a 12-season tenure for Middleton in Milwaukee that saw him blossom from a lightly regarded second-round pick into the second-leading scorer, rebounder and assist man on an NBA champion.
End of an era for Middleton in Milwaukee
Middleton is averaging 12.6 points in 23.2 minutes per game — both his lowest numbers in more than a decade — across 23 appearances, 16 of which have come off the bench. He’s taken on a larger facilitating role in the second unit, dishing 4.4 assists a night, while shooting an efficient 58.4% on 2-pointers, 40.7% on 3s and 84.8% from the free-throw line.
The 33-year-old made three All-Star teams with the Bucks, averaging 17.1 points, 4.9 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 1.2 steals per game across a dozen seasons. He exits Milwaukee second in franchise history in games and minutes played, behind only Antetokounmpo, and at or near the top of the franchise record book in a slew of other categories.
Only Giannis and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar have scored more points in a Bucks uniform than Middleton, who came to Wisconsin as part of the Brandon Jennings-for-Brandon Knight swap all the way back in 2012 and developed into a smooth-scoring, consistently productive and dependable complement to Milwaukee’s franchise player. He was a knockdown 3-point shooter spacing the floor for Antetokounmpo’s rampages to the rim; Giannis’ preferred playmaking partner in the pick-and-roll, especially late in games; a credible contributor to Bucks defenses perennially built on length and activity; and a three-level scorer capable of taking and making big shots from all over the floor.
Middleton put all those skills on display during Milwaukee’s run to the 2021 NBA championship, which included five 30-plus-point performances, headlined by a 38-10-5-5 masterclass to force a Game 7 against Kevin Durant’s Brooklyn Nets in the second round and a 40-ball in Game 4 of the NBA Finals against the Suns, knotting the series up at two games apiece and setting the stage for Antetokounmpo to slam the door in Games 5 and 6, delivering Milwaukee its first NBA championship in 50 years.
After another All-Star campaign, though, Middleton suffered a sprained left MCL in Game 2 of Milwaukee’s opening-round playoff series against the Bulls, sidelining him for the rest of the postseason — the start of a string of injuries that have impeded the 6-foot-7 swingman ever since. Since the spring of 2022, Middleton has battled, among other things, a left wrist injury that would require surgery, left knee soreness and swelling, right knee soreness that would eventually lead to arthroscopic surgery and sprains that eventually would result in surgeries on both ankles.
The spate of ailments has cost him more than 100 regular-season games over the last three seasons, forcing him to struggle through grueling rehab (“It absolutely sucks”) and manage through minutes restrictions in hopes of being able to fully recover his form in time to help Antetokounmpo, Lillard, Brook Lopez and Co. make another push for the title. He’s shown flashes of that form — most notably in the first round of the 2024 postseason, when, with Antetokounmpo and Lillard both rendered unavailable by injury, he averaged 24.7 points, 9.2 rebounds and 4.7 assists on 48/36/90 shooting splits in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to lead the Bucks past the Indiana Pacers.
But while his shooting numbers and per-minute and per-possession production have remained strong in the aggregate since returning to the lineup following ankle rehab, Middleton has struggled with night-to-night inconsistency in limited minutes off the bench, as well as with knee tendinitis that has kept his minutes down. And a Milwaukee team that’s increasingly built around the two-man interplay and individual excellence of All-Stars Antetokounmpo and Lillard has struggled with consistently integrating Middleton into the fabric of the offense.
Those struggles — combined with Middleton’s $31.7 million salary (with a $34 million player option for next season), a big number for an organization operating over the second apron — led the Bucks, who are fighting to stay afloat in the Eastern playoff picture, to consider searching for upgrades that could help fortify them for potential postseason matchups against the likes of the Cavaliers, Celtics, Knicks or Pacers. That search has landed Middleton in a new home for the first time since 2013; his own search, though, continues.
“For the most part, just frustrating, just that I’m dealing with rehab,” Middleton told Eric Nehm of The Athletic last month. “Dealing with coming off an injury for consecutive years, but like I said, it is what it is. I just have to continue to keep doing the work to be the player that I know I’m capable of being and that I have been.”
Kuzma’s run in Washington ends unceremoniously
Kuzma was positioned as one of the team’s leaders, but is now having perhaps the worst year of his career. His numbers have gone down across the board thanks to a drop in minutes, and even when adjusting for time and number of possessions, his scoring output is the worst of his Wizards career.
He is also shooting career lows from the field (.419), the 3-point line (.273) and the free-throw line (.590).
Not helping things was when he acknowledged he wasn’t that interested in helping his teammates develop, which is basically the only thing the Wizards care about at this point. From The Athletic:
“I think today I just decided to be myself and not really just try to fit into everything that we’re doing here, and just really played in the moment,” Kuzma said. “I think my mom helped me out with that. I saw her today.”
Asked immediately what he meant by playing in the moment and not trying to fit in, Kuzma answered, “I mean just not trying to fit into what we’re trying to do here. Just being more assertive, demanding the ball, not just going out there and trying to let people develop. Just playing my game.”
The 29-year-old Kuzma got his $102 million payday in the summer of 2023 while the Wizards were engaging in a down-to-the-studs rebuild, but he ended up having little to offer from a long-term outlook. He still has two-and-half years of team control left with decreasing salary cap hits, going from $23.5 million this season to $19.4 million in 2026-27.
Kuzma originally joined the Wizards as part of the return from the Russell Westbrook trade, which was undoubtedly a win for the team. He went from being a supporting piece with the Los Angeles Lakers to a more featured player with the Wizards and it worked for a while, there was really nothing left to be done in D.C.
