The Washington Wizards aren't in the playoffs, yet they continue to have their names mentioned despite having one of the worst-records in the league.
Although Washington isn't in the postseason, several of the team's former players had the luxury of finding themselves on teams who have a chance to compete for the Larry O'Brien trophy over the next month.
One of those players happens to be Kyle Kuzma who the Wizards traded to the Milwaukee Bucks ahead of the NBA trade deadline in February in exchange for Kyle Kuzma, AJ Johnson and draft capital.
Milwaukee made the deal for Kuzma in hopes to get younger on the wing, while also adding reliable scoring around Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard.
Since trading for Kuzma, it's safe to say that the Bucks have yet to see that from their midseason addition and the problem has only seemed to get worse since the playoffs began.
And while Kuzma is no longer apart of the Wizards, the forward's struggles continue to be tied back to his days in Washington.
Kendrick Perkins blames Wizards for Kuzma's poor play
Following Game 2 of the Bucks-Pacers series, ESPN Analyst Kendrick Perkins gave his take on Kuzma's poor play throughout the playoffs:
"Kyle Kuzma, I don't know if it's because he's been playing meaningless basketball for the past two years for the Washington Wizards and he forgot how to play playoff and championship basketball, I was expecting big things from him. I'm not seeing that," Perkins said.
Through two games, Kuzma has recorded 12 points, 3 rebounds and 1 assists which all came in Game 2 after quite literally making no impact in Game 1.
There's no denying that Kuzma has absolutely struggled throughout the postseason, but it's unfair to blame the Wizards for his struggles because at the end of the day, he was a big reason for why Washington was in position to be playing "meaningless basketball" during his time in D.C.
Kuzma didn't offer much as a leader and when he was on the court, when he wasn't making his case to land on Shaqtin a Fool, he was focused more on personal stats than he was helping the Wizards win games or build towards the future.
Of course he helped deliver the Lakers their 17th championship, but that was several years ago. It's safe to say the Bucks should have known what they were getting themselves into when they were trading for the struggling forward.