Yup was truly a blessing in disguise..been saying it. Michael Phelps with the swim moves, Michael Jordan with the tennis shoes.
Big Ballers .... early takes /eye tests 1st several days after the draft on Kuz. There were probably more after getting to see first clips of him .... but I stopped with me. Feel free to add your own if they came right after seeing his clips for the first time. Is it training camp yet in new facility?
seems like a destined picked, I recall when his group of draftee's came in for workout he seemed to be the one being featured in interviews, then the chi combine story comes out about his stock rising and all of a sudden nbadraftnet had him mocked to us for a few days lol. Same with Bryant, but I saw him mocked to us at 28th
Game recognizes Game What can I say, we both have eyes for talent. We should probably apply for opening scout positions for the Knicks.
Honestly, I may be going a bit overboard here....but what if Kuzma starts at the 4 and Randle comes off the bench? Hear me out... Lopez, Kuz, Ingram, KCP and Ball...that's a very spread floor. Nance, Randle, Brewer, Clarkson, Clark/Rose...seems like a lot more firepower offensively coming off the bench (I understand that makes Zu out of the rotation but whatever he sucked in SL and I think we're better suited to go with a more mobile bench that can switch everything) I don't know how Randle would take it....but I'm thinking about spacing here. Having all 5 guys in the starting lineup as threats to hit the 3 ball would REALLY open up the floor for us and we'd be really hard to guard. Plus, I don't think we really lose anything defensively as Randle hasn't shown to be a great defensive player yet. I'm wondering if the coaching staff has considered this or not....I'd probably be OK with it...
i'm thinking that after about 12 minutes of randle tossing kuzma all over the floor everyone will accept that he's likely a deep backup 3/4 this year unless there are injuries.
So I was very impressed with Kuzma getting the Nike deal, so I started looking into who is on the Nike list. The list is 135 players long and some of them are not very good... Still, I don't think many #27 picks get signed by a shoe deal right out of the gate like this. The guy is playing his way into money. Got to love that.
not sure. nance and randle eat almost all pf minutes, imo. ingram eats most sf minutes and kcp will probably get some burn there, too. if deng is reanimated in any way, he could also take some of those minutes (seriously). unless the lakers plan on using nance at the 5 and dumping deng, i'm not sure where kuzma's minutes come from. i hope he's as good as everyone's saying, and he forces the team into such creative lineups with his immense talent. but that's asking a lot out of a rookie. he is older, though... i will say this: if he manages to shoot the three like he did in sl, they'll have to find minutes for him, simply because we have so few shooters.
He shot nearly 50% (!!) from deep in Summer League... At that rate, he's my backup SF for now even though I don't love the match-up for him. I also think the Lakers would be smart to go small off the bench and have Nance as their small Center.
it's summer league. if he does it through camp and pre-season, he might force that decision. really gotta watch the summer league extrapolation. historically, it's very dicey.
I'm not disagreeing at all, I'm saying if he could keep up that shooting at say 38-40% he's got to play somehow. We need that on the floor.
About the only negative with Kyle is that he's older like that and has a lower ceiling than a young baller.
I agree with a lot of this video. The biggest thing for me is he (and Lonzo) getting stronger. Right now they're both pretty contact averse. Kuzma only gets strong with people he knows he can beat (smaller players) which is fine, but in the NBA he's going to get bigger bodies on him. He needs to be able to deal out and deal with contact better, primarily on screens. Still, the versatility that Kuzma showed glimpses of is... shocking frankly. I didn't see this coming from him out of college. I'm glad to be proven wrong.
Just mentioned in Ingram's thread how he's fearless in banging on bigger guys than him and moving them already. That is pretty amazing as he's outweighed by 30-40 lbs with this one big guy on Brooklyn ... I'm thinking post all star break. It's in the BI is more like Leonard than Durant video breakdown yesterday. My point is Kuzma who actually has more meat on his frame than Brandon could do really well to copy and master how BI is approaching that physical part of the game you are talking about. Hell, Lonzo too for that matter. Lonzo already has some of that back to the basket in him. Wow he has Earvin Buck Johnson who did it great tutoring him directly and Kobe if he wants, I'm sure, for back to basket masters degree. Like with his height .....same as how Kobe and Magic were able to look over their shoulders and survey the floor while backing someone down.
Ingram never has been shy about trying to be physical. Even in college and early in the season he tried to accept the physical challenge. I remember hearing from him early on that Brandon took physical challenges personally due to his thin frame and that he enjoyed the challenge of physicality. Lonzo is not like that and Kuzma is more strategic with it. Still, NBA players are going to push these guys around on purpose to rattle them. It's important that they are capable of taking that beating while still playing their game. Kuzma is too big of a guy to not be able to use that to his advantage. I don't need Malone, but I need something. Right now he'd get absolutely bullied by NBA PFs inside and outside.
Dont put Kuz in bad positions.. Play him at the 3 or play him in the 4 when we/other teams go small and we can get away with it.
