and for those criticizing his social media comments, whats wrong with confidence especially if youre the one being asked the question. would you have rather him said "no i dont think i can be the 3rd star." im sure that would have gone over well here kuz is the definition of damned if you do, damned if you dont
I agree, and I think Kuz misses playing with Lonzo, BI, and Hart and he misses having no expectations.
There will always be high expectations if you are playing for the Lakers. Just how it is. Even with the rebuild and the kids, we expected great things out of Ingram, Zo, and Kuz.
Lakers can match any offer Kuz gets. I guess the best reason to offer an extension is because you prevent other teams from offering a higher amount. Regardless, Lakers are in the control seat regarding Kuz.
and maybe not as much was said about his work ethic in years past but can you remember ever hearing anything negative about him other than from the fanbase? Sorry @jbiggs, I took your above comment to mean you never hear anything negative about Kuzma from teammates.....meaning he’s a good locker room guy. That’s where the Dudley/Kuz comment came from. Not that I was trying to compare their games.
got ya got ya. misunderstandings on both our parts. it was more of me just saying ive never heard anyone other than the media or fans complain about the things we see here on message boards
His usage rate will be higher this year just because Vogel wants to rest up the vets for the playoffs. It is also Kuzma's contract year so you know he will be motivated. Gasol starting at Center now gives the Lakers another player proficient at finding the open man. Gasol also doesn't clog the lane and can initiate the offense at the top of the circle. Kuzma can either wait for the ball on an open shot or slash, two things he does well. Lebron obviously is another guy who can find the open man on his drive and kicks. Now, Laker fans are going to have to understand this. Kuzma is not Steph Curry. He is not going to be an efficient scorer. He is likely going to need 11 shots to make four 3 pointers. He needs volume and he needs minutes, so there will be times where he misses in games and we can not dog him for that. What I WILL dog him on is fundamental goofs. He should never dribble in traffic, and never dribble behind the basket and jump pass into oblivion. He did those dumb things in the finals and it stained his overall grade from the previous 3 series. Use the fundamentals of how to pivot correctly and know when to do a bounce pass vs a lob pass. These are things I want Kuzma to get normal in. He will not likely be a 40-45% 3 point shooter, but if he does everything else at a normal level, shooting 35-38% should be enough for this team to win games with the big guys only playing 25-30 minutes a game. Playing Kuzma off the bench is only going to make him play the way he has the last year. He will have scoring guards and energy bigs. He won't get the ball in sweet spots or when he is wide open. I think he needs more than Rondo to look for him off the bench like last year. He needs a couple passing bigs and a consistent rhythm game in and game out for him to get momentum. That's the other thing, rhythm. Kuz needs 20-25 games in the starting lineup to see if he is made for this. Jerking him in and out, here and there doesn't work with his mental make up. He isn't Lou Williams or Vinnie Johnson where they don't play for the 1st quarter and then they come out guns a blazing in the second. He needs consistency and I think the Lakers should go for broke with him this year and see if he is worth keeping after the season is over.
I wonder why Lonzo's underwear was in a twist when he stiffed Kuz with the handshake last year first meeting. That he got traded instead of Kuz? Or more likely some perceived social media "dis"?
Lonzo is a skid mark in Laker lore. No one should care anymore. Lonzo is a mini-bust at the moment and in the end, the Lakers got Anthony Davis for Brandon Ingram, a bench player, an overrated player and draft picks that would only be valued by Danny Ainge. Lakers essentially traded Brandon Ingram for Anthony Davis. And All-Star for a 1st ballot Hall of Famer. Lakers win this trade by 10 miles.
I bet "Meat" is still not convinced. Probably follows the Pelicans now. "Why's he always calling me Meat?"
The nice thing about us having Kuz is that he definitely could start! As Ox mentioned one of Kuz’s best skills is his cutting and Gasol and Lebron could make folks pay with Kuz off ball. If he continues his hot outside shooting and improved defense then he gives us some size at the starting wing where Wes and KCP are a bit shorter. I’m not opposed to it per se. I still don’t like what we saw last game though with both Schroder and Kuz in the starting lineup. As long as Schroder is coming off the bench I’m good with Kuz potentially starting. But I’m also good with Wes jr as a starter. Great problems to have, these choices.
Of course we won the trade in a landslide, but can’t agree with this perspective on Lonzo. You can send your kids out to boarding school, but it’s still all love and you hope one day they can come back home reformed! And yeah Lonzo played poorly in the bubble, but so did a lot of players. He actually started to look really good before the season broke. 13/9/7 on 38% from 3 in January 10/8/7 on 38% from 3 in February 21/8/7 on 51% from 3 in March
That March split above on Lonzo looks really nice. So do all the nice articles coming out on Kuz now. https://www.yahoo.com/sports/anthony-davis-believes-things-slowing-174846242.html
No coincidence that the very next day after playing so well the first three games that he goes on Instagram with his modeling photo shoot, then stinks it up tonight. He just can’t help himself with the self promoting crap on social media. It’s kinda sad actually. Why doesn’t he see it’s a distraction? What part of let your game do the talking instead of social media doesn’t he get?
poor kuz gets his audition as part of the likely planned starting lineup and promptly lays an egg. zero boards in 27 minutes. i can live with a bad shooting night, but...do...something. zero rebounds in a game where we were outrebounded by a much smaller team (reminds me of game 1 of that houston series, iirc).
