The most disappointing player on the Los Angeles Lakers: Kyle Kuzma
Remember when Lakers fans used to compare Kyle Kuzma to Jayson Tatum and Brandon Ingram? That was less than a year ago, but it feels like it’s been a lifetime. Tatum and Ingram exploded this season, each becoming first-time All-Stars. Both players averaged over 23 points per game while shooting just under 40% from deep.
Kyle Kuzma’s season was the opposite of his “contemporaries.” Instead of blowing up like most Lakers fans thought he would, he struggled.
During Kyle Kuzma’s sophomore season– before Anthony Davis joined the Lakers– he was one of the worst 3-point shooters in the league. Over the summer, he hired the famous shooting coach, “Lethal Shooter” to help shore up the deficiencies in his outside stroke. Folks in LA hoped he’d show at least some improvement. Unfortunately, “Kuz” shot worse from beyond the arc this season.
- 2018-2019: .303 3P% off of 6 3-point attempts per game
- 2019-2020: .297 3P% off of 4.4 3-point attempts per game
Overall, Kuzma was the fifth-worst high volume 3-point shooter (at least four attempts from deep per game) in the NBA. “Kuz’s” faulty jumper wasn’t his only problem, though.
Kyle Kuzma was terrible on defense. He continually got bullied by other forwards down on the block, and he also struggled to contain guards on the perimeter. Kuzma doesn’t play any position well on the less glamorous side of the ball.
The advanced stats paint the same ugly picture of Kuzma’s season.
- Value Over Replacement Player: -0.5 (last on the Lakers)
- Win Shares: 1.4 (last out of every regular rotation player)
- True Shooting %: .522 (11th on the Lakers)
After Kyle Kuzma averaged 16 points per game during his rookie campaign, Lakers fans had high hopes for the Utah product. We thought we’d found a steal at the end of the first round, an All-Star in the making.
Now it seems like we were wrong. Perhaps Kuzma is just another late first-round pick who will be lucky to carve out a bench role on a contender. That’s disappointing.