Ranking the Los Angeles Lakers Top 5 assets in an Anthony Davis trade
By Nolan Jensen
#4) Kyle Kuzma
Here’s where I lose any Lakers fans tuning in or just Kuzma fans in general. Yes, I ranked him this low, and yes, I do understand the potential backlash of my actions. Attempt to hear me out if you’re opposed, Kuzma is a very good NBA player, and he’s still only 23-years-old. But, he has glaring weaknesses in his game that have yet to be addressed.
Kuz has the potential of being an elite scorer in today’s NBA from the power forward position. He can shoot from the perimeter (inconsistently, but still), he can put the ball on the floor and take you off the dribble, and he can pull up from seemingly anywhere inside the arc. His efficiency has dipped from distance but I would not expect that to be a continuing trend. By all accounts, he has a great work ethic and will strive to fix his inadequacy shooting the ball.
The day before dropping a career-high 41 points, Kyle Kuzma was in the gym putting up 500 shots.
— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) January 10, 2019
"It’s not like he just came out and had a hot night. He put in that work.” - Luke Waltonhttps://t.co/KElNIcuvZL
Despite his ability to score in volume, he has other large holes in his game that are worth mentioning. For one, he’s a below average rebounder at his position. He averaged just 5.5 rebounds-per-game last season and had a defensive rebound percentage of just 14.1 percent. Likewise, he’s not exactly one to attack the offensive glass either, averaging 0.9 offensive rebounds per game for the 2018/19 season.
And on the defensive end of the basketball, he’s well, how do I put this subtly, he’s bad. The Los Angeles Lakers aren’t a great defensive team, in Kuzma’s own defense. They finished 13th in defensive rating, which is respectable, but ranked 21st in the NBA in points-per-game allowed, with 113.5. So advanced defensive metrics tend to be inflated in a less than flattering manner. For example, Jrue Holiday played on a horrendous defense this year in New Orleans and had the worst defensive rating of his career (112), so does that make him a bad defender? Of course not (also not saying Kuzma is the defender Jrue is, just making a point against defensive rating).
But with that being said, Kuzma does need to work on his activity level on the defensive side of the ball. His career averages of 0.6 steals and 0.4 blocks per game illustrate that. When he gets switched onto a guard, it usually ends tragically. But at just 23-years-old, there’s still time for improvement.