When the Washington Wizards paired up Kyle Kuzma and Jordan Poole following the offseason trade that sent Chris Paul to the Golden State Warriors, the likely hope was that the two scorers could help ignite the offense. Unfortunately, that's been far from the case, as the Wizards are currently tied for the second-worst record in the NBA at 3-15, ahead of only the Detroit Pistons, who have lost 16 consecutive games.
But following an initial breakdown of the best and worst duos across the NBA by The Ringer's Zach Kram, the numbers show that Kuzma and Poole actually check in as the worst one-two punch in the league.
While the initial numbers showed the Washington duo floating around a -20 net rating when Kuzma and Poole are on the floor, SB Nation's James Dator took it one step further. Dator searched Basketball Reference to find that as of the end of November, the pairing is flirting with a net rating of -32.1. The second-closest duo is just north of -15, and that title is held by Chicago Bulls guard Zach LaVine and forward DeMar DeRozan.
It's a brutal stat and almost entirely explains the Wizards' struggles out of the gate this year, although other issues are looming as well. But for the team's two highest-paid players (Poole with a cap figure of north of $27.45M this year and Kuzma above $25.56M), that's a tricky issue to overcome.
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