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Lakers: Has Kyle Kuzma increased or decreased trade chances in bubble?

By Jason Reed

LAKE BUENA VISTA, FLORIDA - AUGUST 20: LeBron James #23 of the Los Angeles Lakers and Kyle Kuzma #0 of the Los Angeles Lakers and Anthony Davis #3 of the Los Angeles Lakers at the half against the Portland Trail Blazers in Game Two of the Western Conference First Round during the 2020 NBA Playoffs at AdventHealth Arena at ESPN Wide World Of Sports Complex on August 20, 2020 in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
LAKE BUENA VISTA, FLORIDA - AUGUST 20: LeBron James #23 of the Los Angeles Lakers and Kyle Kuzma #0 of the Los Angeles Lakers and Anthony Davis #3 of the Los Angeles Lakers at the half against the Portland Trail Blazers in Game Two of the Western Conference First Round during the 2020 NBA Playoffs at AdventHealth Arena at ESPN Wide World Of Sports Complex on August 20, 2020 in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images) /
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(Photo by Ashley Landis-Pool/Getty Images) – Los Angeles Lakers
(Photo by Ashley Landis-Pool/Getty Images) – Los Angeles Lakers /

The argument for decreased trade odds:

The very basic argument for this is that Kyle Kuzma took a step back in the NBA Playoffs (thus far) and that has seemingly lowered his trade value. However, as already mentioned, that won’t hurt his trade value as it is such a small sample size. There are other reasons why his trade odds could have lowered in the bubble.

1. The terrible play of Danny Green

Something that has absolutely nothing to do with Kyle Kuzma could have saved him from being traded from the Los Angeles Lakers. Danny Green has been really bad offensively in the NBA bubble and it took him some time for the defense to come around as well.

This has changed the entire dynamic of what the Lakers may look to do. The idea has always been to package Green and Kuzma for a player with a larger contract but Green might not be as valuable as he was six months ago.

2. Kyle Kuzma keeps providing those flashes of greatness that are hard to let go of

And this is where it gets hard for the Los Angeles Lakers. While the team has learned that they do not need a great game out of Kuzma to win basketball games, getting great games out of him is still obviously going to help their chances.

And in this bubble, Kuzma has given several really great showings that makes it harder for the Lakers to part ways with him. Instead of looking at the overall picture, it can become easy to hone in on those really good games as evidence that Kuzma will take another step forward next season.

Kuzma had two seeding games in which he scored more than 20 points and he was shooting the ball really well in all of the seeding games, which has always been the important skill that he needed to develop.

He even had two really solid games in round one in Game 1 and Game 4. He scored 14 and 18 points in those two games and in Game 4 made five of nine three-point attempts.

So what is the verdict? Has Kyle Kuzma’s strong few games and Danny Green’s bad showing been enough to decrease his trade odds this offseason?

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