Kentavious Caldwell-Pope is one of the several great pieces the Wizards got in return for Russell Westbrook, and he was not shy about talking about his great two-way abilities during his introductory press conference.
“I see myself as an elite 3 and D player, I’m very underrated at that,” Caldwell-Pope said. “I don’t get a lot of buzz around that. But that’s how I built my career, from Detroit, being able to play defense, being able to guard the best players on the floor and also being able to knock down a shot. I’ve perfected that throughout my whole career. Now, I feel like I have an opportunity to show a little bit more of my game.”
Washington desperately needed help defensively last season, particularly out on the wings, so adding Caldwell-Pope will certainly help address those issues.
More Wizards Notes
- Caldwell-Pope and Bradley Beal have a close relationship that goes to when they were 15 years old, with Caldwell-Pope calling Beal his “best friend.” KCP and his 41 percent shooting from three should give Beal much more room to operate next season.
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Spencer Dinwiddie discusses how tough it was for him to wait on if the sign-and-trade deal would come to fruition in an interview with Fred Katz of The Athletic. Dinwiddie pointed out that he was relying on five or six different teams, and if just one of them said no, then the whole trade would fall through. It ended up being a five-team deal with the Nets, Wizards, Lakers, Spurs and Pacers all involved. For more on Dinwiddie’s fit in Washington, check out this article by our own Sameer Kumar.
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Montrezl Harrell has established himself as one of the best scorers off the bench, which earned him Sixth Man of the Year honors in 2020, but if you ask him, there’s a lot more he’d like to accomplish. “Everything, man,” Harrell said during his introductory press conference. “I haven’t been an All-Star in this league since I’ve been here. So, I feel like I have a lot of untapped talents. I haven’t been to an NBA Finals, I haven’t won a championship. There’s a lot of things I haven’t done as a player, so there’s a lot of untapped [potential] that I feel like I can reach.”
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The Raptors are signing Isaac Bonga, according to Blake Murphy of The Athletic Toronto. Murphy assumes it’s another small guarantee to compete for a spot in camp. The Wizards declined to pick up his qualifying offer, which made him an unrestricted free agent.
