As long as there are moronic owners like Vivek Ranadivé with GM's like Vlade (just to name one team) there is a danger of non-worthy players getting big deals. We were there ourselves not long ago with Deng and Mozgov (not to lump Kuz in with them). We do have Kuz's bird rights but the only way that will be of much help is if LBJ forgoes his last year of his contract so we can sign another star and go over cap in '21 resigning Kuz and possibly other players who aren't too old and we have bird rights on (like KCP & Caruso). It may sound like slim pickins' but if Kuz develops into a consistent 2-way player, maybe just a tier 2 or 3 "star" add him to AC and another star like Giannis and who knows, maybe LBJ kills his last year of his deal but still comes back to play on a min just to get "one more" and you have KCP and AC who hopefully are consistent role players and the rest vet mins you can put together a team.
He's got a great group who have taken an interest in his development in recent weeks -- Green, Dudz, and Rondo. Hopefully it yields results for either our championship run or to bump his trade value.
not that i feel like worrying about it right now, but kuz will be an RFA in a market that will be focused on bigger names. i don't think he's going to get wildly expensive, stupidly. if he's expensive, it means he's done very well. my suspicion is we'll be able to keep him for clarkson-ish money. but so much can happen between now and then that it's not worth speculating about.
Kuzma has to have a successful playoffs in order to justify a big contract - think of Siakam or Jaylen Brown - both have played well in the playoffs (in Siakam's case, the NBA finals)...and Kuzma has yet to PLAY in the playoffs. If his game goes to the next level at that level? He's going to get paid.
It will be interesting to see if Dudley and Rondo continue to get in his ear: the one thing defense gets you is the ability to get thru rough patches with your jumper. The team can still play you and gets you longer leash to get into a rhythm on offense. Liked his defense against Westbrook but he's got a lot of length on him. On bigger wings, the consistent problem is he's just too upright: if he can just get his center of gravity lower that will make him up for lack of bulk. If Dudley can get him to continue to concentrate on just staying in front of his man and fighting thru screens instead of trying to deflect/block shots that will help. This will take away focus from trying to get high to contest (which involves getting out of your stance)
He's definitely a rhythm player. If he needs to dribble around and jack up a few shots to get into the flow of the game, let him.
Going by career statistics, Kuzma compares favorably to both Jaylen and Pascal. Jaylen really broke out this season... at 23 years of age and is getting paid 4yrs/107 million Pascal really broke out last season at 24 years old and is getting paid 4 yrs/130 million. This season he's producing more but at much lower efficiency. Both of their teams are doing well. https://www.basketball-reference.co...Jaylen+Brown&player_id2=brownja02&idx=players https://www.basketball-reference.co...akam&y2=2020&player_id2=siakapa01&idx=players BI also broke out during his fourth year at 22... so I'm guessing he will be paid similar to Jaylen or Pascal unless he gets hurt or has a severe decline. However, the question is does Kuzma have that next level improvement? Unlike the other three... his scoring efficiency has declined every year and he will be 25. Kawhi had a lackluster fourth year but then took it to the next level in his fifth and sixth season. If he has another gear... then sure, paying him 107 to 130 million would make sense... but whereas the other players have shown improvement offensively, Kuzma hasn't although he is trying more on defense. I suppose as some have said, the best strategy is to wait the next year and a half to see if that improvement comes. It's what I said about Ingram when we had him. But where as Ingram started out horribly and slowly progressed to good... Kuzma started out well and has stagnated. To even pay Ingram 100 million plus would be nerve wracking considering his health and inconsistency... but I can't fathom paying Kuzma unless we see that next gear. The idea of a Kuzma/AD duo with no LBJ in my mind takes us back to the dark ages.
In my mind Ingram always had the most amount of tools out of any of our young guys. He showed flashes of offensive brilliance (which has been validated this year in full), he showed he could handle the ball and create for himself and others when he played point forward for us for that stretch under Luke, and he had the tools to be a defensive pest with his length. Kuzma has shown flashes of offensive brilliance. And this is the last time I mention this, I just feel like his best position is suited as a 4 that finishes plays, however we have AD in that position. It’s also tough when Lebron is playing the 3/4 exclusively during playoffs and dominating the ball. I hope he proves me wrong but I can’t see the fit to him being successful.
i actually see kuz as a 3, primarily because he doesn't rebound very well. i mean, he's obviously a 3/4, but you can only play him at 4 as a backup--or if your starting c is andre drummond or something. the issue is that lebron and AD are 3 and 4 defensively. but we haven't really gotten to see a 5/AD/lebron/kuz/wing lineup much. if that wing is bradley or kcp, they can guard the other team's pg. does kuz get torched by sgs? or can he make up for the lateral quickness loss with his length and some savvy? i wonder if we'll see this lineup configuration some in the second half of the season, given the long-term implications of its success or failure. kuz is the third most-talented player on the team. is the right role for him here? should he be moved for a bogdanovic type ballhandler/scorer? i don't think we can know until we see him share the floor more with the big dogs. problem is that leaves some skeleton crew lineups for portions of the game. but those crews haven't been that bad of late.
I get you for sure. It’s hard to say how he does against high quality SG’s, someone like Klay or JJ torches him because they run around screens all day and Harden is just too savvy and Kuzma isn’t a good enough defender to take that on without fouling. On the offensive end I see him as a 4 as he is too quick for the big guys and has a lot of finesse to go against people his size. But that’s where AD thrives being too strong and too quick - and AD is a total mis match. Weird position for Kuz right now and we let go of the wrong wing and should of kept Ingram.
theres no ad trade w/o ingram, anyone who thought we had a choice between the 2 clearly thought to highly of Kuz
Look if you are not going to be able to play him AD at the 5 and Lebron then he needs to be traded for someone who can. He's shown glimpses of improved defense even with his offense game but not giving him reps with AD/Lebron is simply foolish. If it works great, if it doesn't then that helps as well because you're not going to be able to get away with Bradley/Green/Caruso against teams with multiple big wings like the Clippers. Frankly stupid not to play him tonight in the 3rd till the game was blown out (Also stop playing so many minutes to non shooters like Bradley and Rondo: uggh frustrating)
Ingram had blood clots that were potentially career ending. I don't buy there wasn't a trade without him. I think we chose to keep Kuz because Lebron played Ingram's position.
He missed the last 20 games to end the season and got cleared in the off season. No one knew how and if and when he would come back properly. If anyone says they expected this from him and he was the reason we got AD - that's Monday quarterbacking and using hindsight.
not hindsight everybody and their mama knew Ingram n the 4th pick was the meat/potatoe of that pkg for ad, everything else was side pieces.....ingram was cleared of any further issue with clot, was already known, he just wasn't practicing or working out at that pt, youre being a revisionist yourself, we never had an opt n ingram salary was also need to make it work to pt of having max space also
