Los Angeles Lakers: Kyle Kuzma through the years

 Kyle Kuzma’s Sophomore Season

This year, with the arrival of LeBron James, I predicted that Kyle Kuzma would ultimately take a step back in his performance on the court. So far I have been dead wrong and it looks as if Kuzma has established himself as the best fit alongside LeBron.

With the elevated expectations of the Lakers, Kuzma has used this opportunity to take a substantial leap in his game compared to last season.

Granted his percentages are only slightly better than what they were last year, and his points per game have only gone up by two points, make no mistake about it, Kuzma has improved in a lot of areas, such as his decision making, defense and playing with LeBron, he is learning to move without the basketball in order to find the best spots for himself to create on the court.

Kuzma started the season with a 37 point game in an overtime loss to the San Antonio Spurs in the Lakers 3rd game of the season.

A lot of talk this season was on Brandon Ingram and how he would be the guy to most benefit from playing alongside James.

However, Brandon Ingram was suspended in the Lakers second game of the season against the Houston Rockets for his part in the altercation between Rajon Rondo and Chris Paul. This essentially opened up the door for Kuzma, who started the season coming off the bench.

When Ingram returned from his suspension, head coach Luke Walton kept Kuzma in the starting lineup along with James and Ingram.

I noticed at times that Ingram and Kuzma struggled to play with each other as I felt that they were taking shots away from one another and really just didn’t look comfortable on the court together.

They eventually got things together and Kuzma preceded to go on an incredible personal run scoring at least 20 points in 9 out of 10 straight games in the month of December.

However, LeBron James suffered a groin injury on Christmas Day that kept him out for 17 straight games and this was ultimately seen as an opportunity for the young players to show how they can lead the Lakers without LeBron on the floor.

On January 9, 2019, Kyle Kuzma scored a career-high 41 points against the Detroit Pistons in a 113-100 win.

However, since then the Lakers have struggled to consistently put wins together. Unfortunately, they have fallen from the 4th seed in the Western Conference to the 9th seed in the wake of LeBron James injury.

To make matters worse, all of the talk around the Lakers young players, particularly Kuzma, is the ongoing trade discussions that arose amidst the informal trade request made by Anthony Davis, or Anthony Davis’s agent, Rich Paul.

Kuzma has also been battling some nagging injuries, which has hampered his performance the last two weeks.

Nevertheless, it seems as though off the court distractions have taken away from the actual play of the Lakers on the court and that’s something to keep an eye on.

Up to this point, Kyle Kuzma is averaging 18.9 points, 5.8 rebounds, and 2.5 assists per game and was recently invited for the second straight year to participate in the NBA Rising Stars Challenge.