Kyle Kuzma’s drop in production correlates directly with when Rajon Rondo is on the floor.
For all the Lakers fans that saw the Oklahoma City game, Lake Show Life will allow you a few seconds to roll your eyes. Okay done? Let’s continue. Sure, they both played out of their minds together. But let’s just say that there was a lot of motivation.
There are not many Lakers fans that thought the team had a chance with LeBron being out with a cold and AD’s back injury. With all of the moves being looked at in the front office, let’s just say Rajon Rondo and Kyle Kuzma have the most to lose.
Per ESPN’s Dave McMenamin, some of the players stayed up until five in the morning in their OKC hotel and just talked about basketball. That group included Kyle Kuzma and Rajon Rondo.
The Lakers got to their hotel in OKC around 3 a.m. local time late last night after flying from Dallas. Rajon Rondo said a group of 6 or 7 of the guys stayed up talking about ball until about 5 in the morning -- including him and Kuzma. Then they combined for 57 pts vs. OKC.
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) January 12, 2020
Along with Kuzma’s nuclear offensive explosion, Rajon Rondo played well finishing two assists shy of a triple-double. His totals of 21 points, 12 rebounds, and eight assists capped off his best performance since Christmas Day, OF LAST YEAR!
Let’s take a look at the difference between this game and the rest of the season. In this game, both players started. Usually, both are bench players. Hence the major problem with how Kuzma struggles while playing with Rondo.
Kuz averages around 24 minutes a night and two-thirds of his minutes come with Rondo on the floor. The roster has been affected not having a shot creator behind the NBA’s assist leader. Kyle has been affected the most.
Let’s look at the seven games Kuzma played after his second ankle injury. With Rajon Rondo on the court, he’s shot an ice-cold 25% from 3 point range with Rondo on the court as opposed to 38% when Rondo’s off it. Up until that point, Kuzma had a +17 plus/minus ratio when he plays with LeBron and falls off the efficiency cliff (-11.5) when he’s not.
Furthermore, Rajon Rondo has been woefully inefficient. He has taken a step back as a shooter which negates the Lakers floor spacing. Defensively? PFFT! Stop, please. It dissolves like a sandcastle in the Pacific Ocean.
Sure he gets assists that look like nice reads but think of who those passes go to. The stars. Most of the time he’s off-target with his passes to the other players leading to a turnover percentage of 22%.
To the people who have issues with LeBron running the point guard spot, feel free to convince Kyle Kuzma of someone better.
But these recent games are not going to be the norm for Kuzma or the Los Angeles Lakers. Anthony Davis will be back soon and Kyle Kuzma will be back on the bench with the responsibility of being the third guy.
Lake Show Life will help out everyone involved.