Kyle Kuzma Discussion: Wizard

I've got some time so I'm going to make a few gifs of brilliant plays I see from our players that I think will translate pretty quickly. Here there's a set play with two screens that you see pretty commonly in the NBA. I'm sure Laker Film Room would do a better job explaining this play, but you see Ball take the screens, let Zubac roll to the rim, then sets up a second screen with just Kuzma. While the defense keeps track of the roll away by Zubac, Kuzma pops out for a wide-open three that's set up perfectly by Ball and I mean perfectly. The timing is perfect, the spacing is perfect, and Kuzma is set up with a tremendous potential for points given his specific skillset. Just incredible for a team that's spent a week and a half together.


This is a credit to Buechler too for play design in a such a tight window. We're talking about a place where most teams don't install many actual plays because their players would get lost too easily.

This one is just an idea of what an open floor would look like. The defense is forced to stay attached to all threats. In this lineup Wear is technically your Center, Kuzma your Power Forward, and either Blue or Thomas is your Small Forward. Replace Blue with Caldwell-Pope and Thomas with Ingram and the spacing will still look similar. The difference is, you'll see those defenders cheat more to the elbows, but as long as Pope and Ingram can hit a decent percentage, you're looking at a great shot of what the Lakers want to see next season: open floor with room to create mismatches.



Lastly: these are just the Klay Thompson-esque threes he could take and make for us. Notice how he relocates, finds the three point line, and gets his shot off quickly before the defense can recover...

 

Normally the 27th pick of the NBA draft doesn't sign an endorsement deal this quickly let alone with Nike this quickly. Impressive and it shows us too the Nike obviously believe in him and his game.