{"id":177012,"date":"2025-07-17T14:12:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T14:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/177012\/"},"modified":"2025-07-17T14:12:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T14:12:11","slug":"aj-johnson-makes-milwaukee-bucks-trade-for-kyle-kuzma-look-even-worse-with-latest-summer-league-performance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/177012\/","title":{"rendered":"AJ Johnson makes Milwaukee Bucks trade for Kyle Kuzma look even worse with latest Summer League performance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Milwaukee Bucks engaged in a desperate trade last season, only to end up getting sent home in the first round of the 2025 NBA Playoffs.<\/p>\n

In a huge four-team deal, the Milwaukee Bucks<\/a> parted ways with Khris Middleton<\/a> and AJ Johnson in a deal centered around Kyle Kuzma<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While most have focused on the Bucks moving on from Middleton, it seems like the organization may have lost an underrated player in Johnson.<\/p>\n

\"AJPhoto by Patrick McDermott\/Getty ImagesAJ Johnson shines in Washington Wizards\u2019 NBA Summer League win<\/p>\n

The Washington Wizards<\/a> recently took on the Utah Jazz<\/a> in the 2025 NBA Summer League<\/a>. While the Wizards suffered an 86-76 loss, it wasn\u2019t because of Johnson.<\/p>\n

If anything, Johnson impacted the game the most for the Wizards. To be precise, the 20-year-old finished the night with a game-high 25 points.<\/p>\n

He did so by shooting 10-of-16 from the field, including a 2-of-5 showing from the three-point line. Additionally, Johnson also had 5 rebounds and 3 assists to his name.<\/p>\n

Sure, this is only the Summer League, but Johnson is showing early signs of breaking out after the Bucks gave up on him after half a season during his rookie year.<\/p>\n

Milwaukee Bucks may have made a mistake by trading AJ Johnson for Kyle Kuzma<\/p>\n

After starting his career with the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a>, Kyle Kuzma was traded to the Wizards in 2021. Since then, Kuzma became a top-notch scorer for the team, albeit never playing postseason basketball.<\/p>\n

Considering he was 29 years old when the Bucks traded for him, it felt like the team would improve. After all, adding a former NBA champion who is in the prime of his career is a decent move.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, Kuzma\u2019s stint with the Bucks has been incredibly disappointing. He averaged just 14.5 points, 5.6 rebounds, and 2.2 assists per game in the regular season.<\/p>\n

But the real punch in the gut was Kuzma\u2019s abysmal performance<\/a> in the 2025 NBA Playoffs<\/a>. The 29-year-old averaged just 5.8 points, 2.2 rebounds, and 0.8 assists per game over five contests.<\/p>\n

He also shot a terrible 34.3% from the field and 20.0% from deep. As a result, it\u2019s no surprise that Bucks fans want the team to part ways with Kuzma sooner rather than later.<\/p>\n

Now, with Johnson breaking out with the Wizards, it only makes the trade look worse for the Bucks.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Milwaukee Bucks engaged in a desperate trade last season, only to end up getting sent home in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":177013,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3775],"tags":[4008,7,103,1409,124,102,121,3871,6,3494,468],"class_list":{"0":"post-177012","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-milwaukee-bucks","8":"tag-aj-johnson","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-bucks","11":"tag-eastern-conference","12":"tag-kyle-kuzma","13":"tag-milwaukee","14":"tag-milwaukee-bucks","15":"tag-milwaukeebucks","16":"tag-nba","17":"tag-nba-summer-league","18":"tag-washington-wizards"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114868987463038996","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177012\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}