East Notes: Wizards, Kyle Kuzma, Nets, Raptors

Wizards

The Wizards were close to accepting an offer for forward Kyle Kuzma ahead of the trade deadline, per Josh Robbins of The Athletic.

While Robbins didn’t specify which team, most NBA insiders seem to believe the offer that Washington nearly took came from the Mavericks. Both the Mavs and Kings were said to have an interest in Kuzma.

But eventually, talks pivoted to center Daniel Gafford, who Dallas landed in a deal. Surprisingly, the rest of Washington’s roster remained intact.

Nets

The Nets have officially waived guard Jordan Goodwin, per Brian Lewis of the New York Post. The roster now stands at 16.

After acquiring guard Dennis Schroder and forward Thaddeus Young from the Raptors in the trade involving guard Spencer Dinwiddie, it’s not surprising that the Nets felt compelled to make a roster move.

Goodwin, 25, was acquired as part of the Nets’ trade of forward Royce O’Neale to the Suns on Thursday.

Raptors

While the Raptors made some smaller moves on deadline day, the bulk of their work came via the trades of forwards OG Anunoby (to the Knicks) and Pascal Siakam (to the Pacers) within the last month.

Now, they believe they are set up to make some bigger deals in the offseason, via trades and free agency.

“We did our heavy lifting about a month ago,” GM Bobby Webster told reporters. “So I feel like this trade deadline we cleaned up a lot of things and we addressed some of the things we talked about after the OG and Pascal trades.”

• Webster added that the Raptors intend to give the current group a chance to show what it can do. “We’re going to prioritize seeing this group play,” he said. “If it ends up that we’re in the top six, sure. But especially with the way the new NBA rules are, to try to game that doesn’t make a ton of sense. At the end of the day, it’s going to [come down to] the lottery balls.”