Over the past couple of months, Kyle Kuzma has been showing some real signs of turning into the All-Star caliber player the Los Angeles Lakers need moving forward
Even before the season started, we knew that the Los Angeles Lakers needed one of their young players to emerge as an All-Star caliber player if they were to have a real chance of not only making the playoffs but also of making some noise once they got there.
Brandon Ingram has been up and down with his play – really impressive on some nights, but regressing to the mean on other nights. Lonzo Ball was showing some signs of improving his outside shooting in the three weeks before he injured his ankle, but overall he’s looked like the same exact player he was last season as a rookie.
Kyle Kuzma, on the other hand, has been moving on up.
Last season he averaged 16.1 points per game on 45 percent shooting, and there was much talk of the work he was putting into his game this summer, along with people lauding him for being a diamond in the rough as the 27th pick in the 2017 NBA draft.
This season, he was putting up 16.3 points per game through the end of November, and it seemed like the hard work from the offseason wasn’t really paying off.
Since then, however, he has really stepped things up, in more than one way. Even if the Lakers don’t make the playoffs this season, it should give us hope for next season and beyond, even if all he turns into is attractive trade bait for a player like Anthony Davis or Bradley Beal this summer.