Lakers News: Kyle Kuzma Seems To Still Miss Playing Alongside LeBron James
Washington Wizards forward Kyle Kuzma, who won a title as a key backup on your 2020 Los Angeles Lakers, took to Twitter following ex-teammate LeBron James' 22-point, 20-rebound night a terrific Game 4 Lakers win against the Memphis Grizzlies.
At the time, that James performance brought LA to the brink of a second round Western Conference playoff berth. After Memphis responded with a blowout win at FedEx Forum for Game 5 Wednesday, the series is now moving back to Los Angeles with LA's series lead narrowed to 3-2.
Kuzma's Wizards, meanwhile, missed the postseason entirely with a 35-47 finish, good for just 12th place in the Eastern Conference this season.
Brandon "Scoop B" Robinson and Sandeep Singh Chandok of Bally Sports recently spoke with Charlotte Hornets guard Dennis Smith Jr. about how the Lakers at least seem to have finally moved on from Kuzma, after the team traded for his former Wizards teammate Rui Hachimura, another jump-shooting combo forward with some athletic upside.
"When I look at Rui and I look at what he is doing, you see a swagger. I'll be even as optimistic and confident to say I look at Rui as the person who Kyle Kuzma was supposed to be in LA and wasn't. It just didn't work out that way. And you see it in the NBA from my vantage point. You need that third star," Robinson said. "It's not that Kuzma didn't have it, it's just that, when you're playing alongside a guy like LeBron that's so basketball-dominant, you've got to kind of finesse and move around a tightrope and still be able to get your points... I think Rui is the [type of player] that they needed, in comparison to Kuzma."
This is an interesting point of view. To yours truly, Kuzma was a huge two-way component of a championship team with some upside who has since blossomed as a high-level scorer in D.C. Los Angeles liked Kuzma, had signed him to a reasonable deal, and just panic-traded him to the Wizards for a hilariously misguided all-in move to add a past-his-prime Russell Westbrook and finish in 11th place in the West in 2022.
Had the Lakers retained him, what's to say that he wouldn't have evolved into what is now with the Wiz? Kuzma is a big contributor to a bad Washington team at present, though he's not yet a star. Hachimura's inconsistency has kept him in a reserve role with Los Angeles. He's had a nice series so far against the Memphis Grizzlies, though his numbers have fallen down to earth a bit as the series as worn on.
Hachimura, however, is not the defender or rebounder or scorer Kuzma is, though he had a high enough ceiling to convince Washington to select him with the ninth overall pick out of Gonzaga in 2019. He has yet to show any kind of reliable defensive commitment in LA. There's a reason Jarred Vanderbilt has been starting ahead of him since the former Utah Jazzman arrived in town.
LA appears poised to re-sign the restricted free agent Hachimura this summer to a generous new deal, obviously with the hope that he can develop into a Kuzma 2.0 fit (i.e. an athletic and offensively versatile bench combo forward) on this revamped roster.
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