Los Angeles Lakers: Which young core member has the highest ceiling?
Kyle Kuzma
The case for Kyle Kuzma:
Kyle Kuzma averaged 18.7 points per game last season, tied for 3rd among all second-year players in the league. He put up nearly 19 points per contest while shooting only 30% from distance, which was an amazing feat in today’s 3-point crazy NBA.
Kuzma also finished the season as the 41st fastest offensive player in the NBA (minimum 25 games played) with an average speed of 4.92 MPH on the court.
Kuz is an incredibly fast player, which is impressive in itself, but when you couple his speed with the fact that he ran an average distance of 2.60 miles per game, which was the 9th most in the league (he was tied with Brandon Ingram at 2.60 miles per game) it speaks to Kuzma’s conditioning and work ethic.
Kuzma is able to continually put pressure on opposing teams by sprinting out during every transition opportunity and by constantly cutting and running around screens throughout half-court situations.
During the 2018-2019 season, Kyle Kuzma also shot the ball very well from 0-16 feet.
- 0-3 feet: 66%
- 3-10 feet: 47%
- 10-16 feet: 49%
When you compare Kuzma’s field goal percentages to his teammate LeBron James’s, you can see that Kuz was very efficient from mid-range.
LeBron James’s 2018-2019 shooting statistics:
- 0-3 feet: 75%
- 3-10 feet: 30%
- 10-16 feet: 42%
LeBron James was better closer to the basket than Kuzma, but Kuz was more accurate from 3-feet out to 16-feet.
Kyle Kuzma’s defense improved slightly throughout last season. He gave more effort guarding opposing players on the perimeter and he started to exert extra energy chasing players through screens.
The case against Kyle Kuzma:
Kyle Kuzma has two huge flaws in his offensive repertoire.
- He was the worst high volume 3-point shooter in the league last season. He shot 30% on six 3-pointers per game.
- He can’t get his own shot. Kuzma averaged 0.73 points per possession out of isolation plays, which was in the 27th percentile in the NBA. He also averaged 0.91 ppp on post-ups, which was in the 46th percentile in the NBA.
61% of Kyle Kuzma’s 2-point shots during the 2018-2019 season came off of an assist, which shows that Kuz’s scoring is dependent off of other’s.
On defense, while Kuzma did show a somewhat enhanced approach to perimeter defense, but he still had significant trouble guarding other power forwards down low on the block.
He also doesn’t give the Lakers any shot blocking (0.9 BLK%) from the power forward position and his effort on the glass last season was subpar (8.5 TRB%).
All in all, Kyle Kuzma was a negative for the Lakers on defense last season, which can be seen by the fact that the Lakers were 4.3 points worse on defense when Kuz was on the court.