Kyle Kuzma has guaranteed his eventual departure from the Lakers

Kyle Kuzma reportedly wants a sizable contract from the Los Angeles Lakers.

Kyle Kuzma was the one member of the former young core that the Los Angeles Lakers did not want to trade for Anthony Davis. A full season after that Davis trade and Kuzma is a world champion while the rest of the young core couldn’t even get into the NBA Playoffs.

Kuzma has been okay. He has potential and could thrive in the right situation but he simply was not that great as a playmaker off the bench. He would show flashes of brilliance here and there but overall, he produced at a very replaceable level.

He is a playmaking four that struggled to make plays. He is not a fantastic defender and is a poor three-point shooter — two traits you typically have to excel at to be a productive role player alongside LeBron James.

However, he still has potential and that potential is what has led him to be in Los Angeles trade rumors since the previous NBA trade deadline. Recently, he guaranteed his eventual departure from the Lakers.

Kuzma reportedly wants to sign a sizable contract extension with the Los Angeles Lakers. We applaud the effort, but Kuzma simply is not worth the kind of money that he is asking for from the Lakers.

Thus, as a restricted free agent after this season, his time on the Lakers is ticking down. Rob Pelinka knows that Kuzma is not going to be a long-term asset for the team and is likely shopping the young forward. If a deal cannot be made then I would guarantee that he leaves LA, similarly to how Julius Randle did.

We dive into the Kuzma situation in the latest episode of the Lake Show Life Podcast.

We also discuss the rumors that the Lakers are interested in Serge Ibaka as well as discussing how the team might handle LeBron’s workload for a December 22 start.

We wrap up the show with Staggerin’ Statistics, Sporcle Edition as we try to guess the 50 greatest Lakers of all-time as well as every player to be on the Lakers’ roster since the 2009-10 season.