Los Angeles Lakers: Power ranking the current players on the roster

5. Kyle Kuzma

Kuz is an interesting case because different advanced stats paint a different picture of him. For example, Kuzma has -1.9 DBPM, which is 12th on the team, but he has 0.4 DWS, which is 6th on the team.

I think his defensive stats are skewed because, at the beginning of the season, Luke had him playing backup center. Now that he’s entrenched at the power forward position, he looks much better on D.

Kuz has been building houses with all the bricks he’s been shooting from beyond the arc. He’s actually shooting under 30 percent. His horrid long distance shooting has really dragged his offensive advanced stats down, but I love his shot chart.

He shoots well over 70 percent of his shots from inside of 3-feet or from behind the 3-point line. Once his 3-pointers start falling he’ll be the Lakers 2nd scoring option.

Some die-hard Brandon Ingram fans might wonder why I have Kuzma ranked No. 5 and Ingram ranked No. 9 because neither has played great basketball. Ingram doesn’t have a single advanced stat that is higher than Kuzma’s. Also, Kuzma plays within the flow of the offense, he doesn’t high-jack possessions or shoots fall-away 17 footers.