Los Angeles Lakers: 5 reasons why trading Kyle Kuzma is a bad idea

1. You will not get back equal value

Making less than $2 million this season is an absolute steal. We talked about this earlier, being on a cost-efficient deal is outstanding. Now we get into the most important part of this article.

You’re not going to get back equal value for Kuzma. You’d have to package him with someone like Green to start looking at guys like Dennis Schröder. First off, I don’t see that happening and second off it wouldn’t be very smart.

Trading Kuzma straight up for someone is not the route to take. Because there is no one remotely near his level of talent at that price. Draft picks are also out of the question because this team is in win-now mode and nothing else.

Getting a draft pick or two would just complicate the situation even more. The Lakers have good chemistry and they’re rolling right now even with Kuzma not hitting his stride yet. Why would you try and fix something that isn’t broken?

The Lakers will more than likely be active on the trade market and the buy out market. But when it comes to trades it’s going to be low-risk deals, that involve guys like Troy Daniels and Talen Horton-Tucker. Daniels is out of the rotation and Horton-Tucker could intrigue a team looking to dump a veteran such as Alec Burks.

So it is not worth it to ship Kuzma off. Has he underachieved? Yes. But you have to factor in what he is making and ask yourself is a trade actually a logical option to upgrade this team?