It’s by no means an excellent factor when your two superstars are trending on social media after one other loss. That has turn out to be the norm for Jordan Poole and Kyle Kuzma. Their first run-in with infamy got here when Poole lobbed an oop to Kuzma off the backboard whereas dropping by 20. Collectively they’re the Bennifer of professional basketball. They’re an unholy basketball marriage of inconvenience, horrible on-court chemistry, producers of poor field workplace stats, however who see themselves as megastars within the making. On Monday night time, the Raptors trailed the Wizards by 16 with 7:25 left in regulation. In that point, the Wizards staged a magnum opus in dysfunction, and by no means hit one other subject aim throughout Toronto’s ensuing 19-1 run.
This season, the duo of Kuzma and Poole have a internet score of minus-23.4. That’s the league’s lowest internet score within the league for two-man combos who’ve performed no less than 150 minutes collectively. The worst half is that they’re so overpaid that they are going to probably return for a repeat in case they find yourself with a weak draft just like the 1989-90 Nets and draft the following Derrick Coleman as a substitute of a championship cornerstone. Typically respectable gamers wind up on a group that doesn’t mesh and wind up within the cellar ala the Baron Davis and Al Thornton-led Clippers. That group additionally featured Zach Randolph, who was a laughingstock across the league till his reformation with Memphis. However traditionally unhealthy duos are one thing else solely.
Kuzma and Poole aren’t developmental gamers on rookie contracts ala final yr’s Houston Rockets or the pre-Embiid Course of period Sixers. This offseason, Kuzma signed a four-year, $90 million extension with the Wizards. Poole is within the first yr of a $128 million extension he signed in Golden State. He’s even given up all makes an attempt at grooming in a symbolic illustration of the extent of sloppiness he’s bringing to the desk.
The Wizards transitioned Chris Paul into his subsequent life as a backup for Jordan Poole as a substitute of retaining him round as a veteran presence so they might backside out and it’s going in line with plan. Within the annals of professional basketball, Poole and Kuzma are portray the chef d’oeuvre for traumatizing basketball. There have been crummier groups to go well with up collectively, however for his or her two main scorers to even be monumental knuckleheads is a better stage of ineptitude. Evening in and night time out, Poole and Kuzma present lowlights for all to witness. This season, Poole is taking pictures 30 % from distance, effectively under the league common. Kuzma could be retaining some commerce worth, however he’s a follower who often takes among the poorest pictures.
Whether or not it’s Poole getting distracted by conversations throughout timeouts and lingering behind to compensate for what was drawn up or Kuzma launching an airball after Jordan Poole fell to his knees whereas attempting to again down the perimeter gawd Jrue Vacation, they appear to be future first-ballot Unhealthy Basketball Corridor of Fame inductees.
The aforementioned Zach Randolph and Eddy Curry had been terrible for the Knicks, however that experiment was over after a season. In 50 video games collectively, they examined the boundaries of what number of one-dimensional huge males who eschew conditioning can occupy the low publish without delay and accumulate a -14.6 internet score. For years, Andre Drummond and Greg Monroe had the Pistons operating in quicksand. At their worst, Monroe and Drummond clogged the lane and briefly paired with Josh Smith for one of many NBA’s worst trios. However huge males don’t management the ball like a pair of ill-fitting guards.
The Monta Ellis and Brandon Jennings tandem bought misplaced to historical past as a result of the Bucks had been lucky to snag Giannis Antetokounmpo in the course of the primary spherical in 2013, however for a short time, they had been a darkish cloud over the Bucks. Ellis was the forerunner to Poole. A quantity shooter who was so filled with himself, he informed The Mercury Information that he wouldn’t have the ability to co-exist with Steph Curry. Thoughts you, this was the underdeveloped and pre-weight room Curry, however it nonetheless supplies a hyperlink by the generations. Whereas Poole by no means explicitly mentioned he couldn’t play with Curry, he did have a penchant for irritating Draymond Inexperienced and the two-time MVP.
Paradoxically, Ellis appeared to discover a kindred spirit in Jenkins. Between 2011 and 2013, Ellis and Jennings performed 101 video games and by no means collected a optimistic plus-minus score on the ground. Nevertheless, no less than they had been capable of muster an 8-seed out of the pairing’s offensive fireworks.
The incompetence is the purpose for Washington. They play at one of many league’s quickest paces, which has satisfied them to play hurried basketball and make frenetic errors. An eighth seed ala Ellis and Jennings can be much more painful than the fact of understanding that this catastrophe class should have been executed a yr earlier. Within the pantheon of unhealthy duos, Kuzma and Poole are operating away with the tag group belt.
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