THIS. His 3pt shooting is horrific - 32% on 4 attempts. He needs to be a lot better than that...LethalShooter my a**.
Lethal Shooter saved my a** ....... pardon the expression from a man of the chick ..... errr .....clergy
He's not seeing the court well on offense. Looks like he's moving too fast - needs to slow down a bit and take advantage of his size and length instead of going up soft.
As much as I've stood up for Kuz here . . . I think he might well be gone next year. And if that's how it is, that's ok. In the meantime, I'm rooting for him of course. He had some good games recently but last night wasn't really one of them.
The problem with Kuzma is if he doesn't play any better... he's almost worthless as trade bait. The only good thing about the situation is you could maybe sign him for pennies on the dollar right now and maybe he comes out of his funk. But I will scream if we give him a big extension with big money
We are not going to do that. He is either going to be traded or re-signed on a friendly contract. He's a cool guy but has not really proven himself as a player. He's only shown flashes of great scoring on a mostly young, inexperienced team... and that's not enough. We want a quality system player, even if that person is not as exciting.
yeah, i suppose if we win a title and he snaps out of it, he could get a big payday, but that circumstance looks pretty unlikely as of now. and if it did happen, i'd be fine with the overpay due to general elation. -19 in 12 minutes is not the path to that.
I really thought this was going to be the breakout year for Kuz, with LeBron & AD getting all the focus of the defense. I was wrong.
Kuz should be traded but not for a scrub like Bogdanovic or Bijelica. The Lakers need to find a better fit who still has some room to grow.
You basically gotta package Kuz, Green and the 2020 pick over the summer for someone good on an expiring deal...someone like Derozan (if he opts in) makes a ton of sense and would fill multiple needs for us. The Spurs would gladly take on Kuzma and Green (former spur)...and maybe we can get this deal done without giving up our pick given that DDR is an expiring deal.
OR you gotta go for the home run - go after guys like Damian Lillard, CJ McCollum, Bradley Beal, Oladipo (is he available if Indy continues to struggle?) etc So you either go after guys like that, who are already locked into big deals, or you go after the DDR's, Aaron Gordon's, Otto Porter's and Zach Lavine's of the world, which is probably more realistic tbh Kuzma's market also depends on how he does in the playoffs - it's his first playoffs and he could enter Jayson Tatum / Jaylen Brown hype if he plays well above expectations there.
Lakers aren't trying to strap themselves with long-term contracts. If we plan on signing Giannis (which everyone knows is the goal), LeBron will have to take a paycut. Lakers treat their players better than anyone (refer to Kobe's contract where the Lakers basically paid him because of his tenure). I'm sure we'll take care of LeBron in some other way but an age 37 LeBron should be willing to take a paycut if he plans on winning still. As much as I would want Lillard, CJ, Beal, Oladipo, etc., it all depends on their contract. We can still make it work with LeBron+AD and building out the roster with role players. Ideally, we re-sign Howard+Cousins and keep AD. We'd have Bradley, KCP (opt-in), Danny Green, Cook, Caruso, Rondo (opt-in), Kuzma, and Tucker. With how poorly Kuzma has played lately, I'm not even sure Danny Green+Kuzma+picks would be enough to warrant a trade. We might be hearing talks of Caruso being involved if there is a decent trade to be made. We'd have to worry most about the Rondo situation (assuming he stinks in the playoffs)... Be upfront and tell this guy you need to bounce or we won't play you any minutes. Get rid of him and sign a secondary playmaker. Grab some 3&D players and we're good to go. I love what KCP+Dwight+Caruso have provided. I think you have to absolutely try to keep them for next season. I was very high on Kuzma and thought he could be a legitimate 3rd option scoring 20-24 PPG but it's becoming blatantly obvious that Kuzma can only do that on a team where shot selection doesn't matter. Knicks, Cavs, Hawks... Those are the teams that Kuzma would thrive in. It is our fault for expecting Kuzma to be a championship-contender third option. He just isn't ready. I would still love to keep him and maybe he can develop during the off-season with a full camp but if you think about it, he's been in the league for three seasons and you just can't name one thing he's improved on.
It will be interesting to see how Lebron handles what may be his final contract. will his ego let him take less? How much has he grown as a person - and does that equate to taking less than you can when clearly you are “box office” and driving revenue? How important is winning REALLY? maybe the situation will solve itself, but it will still be interesting to see how it plays out superstars are generally worth far more than you can pay them by the CBA, but the mixture of age, value, and desire to win and sign the next generation star will make this must see TV
He needs to be reasonable. But if we're coming off a back-to-back title victory, you obviously give him what he wants. He's got a player option for 2022 and AD is likely going to be the ONLY player on our roster for that year if LeBron opts out. That free agency class is ridiculous. Even if we do strike out on Giannis, there are a lot of good players out there. It will depend on if LeBron wants to still carry the team like he is doing now or willing to pass that role to someone else.
Assuming we fail in a title bid, I look for kuz, green, and our pick to be moved for an overpaid-yet-still-productive vet on a short deal.
