Los Angeles Lakers: Frank Vogel believes Kyle Kuzma has found his groove
By Nick Ziegler
As the Los Angeles Lakers continue their winning ways to start 2020, Frank Vogel recently commented on the play of Kyle Kuzma recently.
To start the new year, the Los Angeles Lakers have been playing some great basketball.
Despite Anthony Davis and LeBron James both missing some time in 2020 already, the Lakers have yet to lose a game. The strong play of the Lakers is largely due to their depth stepping up when the stars are out.
One of the players that has been performing better in 2020 has been Kyle Kuzma. To start the season, Kuzma missed a lot of time and his play on the court suffered. Missing so much time and being in and out of the lineup has clearly affected Kuzma on the court, as he has been much better with more minutes and regular playing time.
Recently, with James and Davis out, Kuzma has really found his groove. With the extra minutes, Kuzma is producing very nicely. Vogel talked about whether or not Kuzma is only playing well because of the absence of Davis and or James. Here’s what he had to say via Broderick Turner of the LA Times.
"“I think it’s real,” Vogel said. “Like I said, a lot of it is just he’s been hampered by the injuries and just struggling a little bit to try to find his rhythm. But since he’s been back, since we shut him down for a few games, he’s been playing at a really high level. A couple games where he didn’t really score the ball well, but hopefully this is just another step in that growth into that role, and hopefully he keeps it going.”"
In the first two games without Davis, Kuzma had some big scoring outputs, as he totaled 26 points and then 36 points. Since the Lakers were down their leading scorer, it was important for Kuzma to step up in the scoring department in those games. He was able to do just that, and the Lakers went on to win both of them on the road.
Against the Cavaliers, the Lakers got off to a slow start in the first half, but were able to control the final 24 minutes en route to an easy win. With the game being lopsided, Kuzma only had to play 26 minutes, but his numbers were down from the previous two games.
Next. 3 Small forward trade candidates. dark
When the Lakers are at full strength with Davis back, it will be interesting to see how Kuzma performs. He has shown his scoring potential of late, but we really haven’t seen games like that from him when both James and Davis are playing. Hopefully, this is Kuzma just finally healthy and in a groove.