Los Angeles Lakers: 5 players who likely just played their last game in LA
By Jason Reed
5. Kyle Kuzma
This is a bold prediction and to be honest, I do not blame any Laker fan who rolls their eyes at this prediction. Kyle Kuzma’s entire career has been marred with trade rumors and here I am bringing it up yet again.
Kuzma signed an extension with the Lakers last offseason and that seemingly locks down his future with the team, right? Actually, if anything, it increases the chances that Kuzma is going to be dealt and there is a long-term play of signing that extension.
The worst thing a front office can do is let an asset walk for free and the Lakers made sure that did not happen. They signed Kuzma to a manageable three-year, $40 million contract. That is quite low, and quite frankly, it was surprising that Kuzma’s agents agreed to this and did not see the writing on the wall.
The problem with trading Kuzma in the past is that his salary was so low and the Lakers would have had to pair him with a larger salary. Now Kuzma has that perfect in-between salary that can be traded for a role player to some bad team that is looking to bring in youth.
Right now there are no reports of anything on the table but there will be a role player on an expiring deal that is more valuable than Kuzma with a similar contract that would help the Los Angeles Lakers much more next season than Kuzma will.
Thaddeus Young has a very similar contract and was better than Kuzma last season, Marcus Smart could be on his way out of Boston and even T.J. Warren could be an option if Indiana wants to pivot for youth.
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Again, that is all speculation at this point and the longer the offseason goes the better idea we will have of any potential market but it makes more sense to trade Kuzma now than it did in the past.