His Ceiling doesn't seem that high: Ariza is a very reasonable career trajectory for him and that's perfectly fine for what the Lakers need. I think his defensive ceiling with extra weight is good and at this point more likely to reach a high level like the 3 you listed. Offensively his consistency is an issue and he's not a good 1v1 player so I don't see him getting that high
weak dribbling skills n i hardly ever see him do what brown can do, which is that hard dribble in n pull up for a shot
I think we are stuck with him and we just have to ride this season out A little disappointed that he didn't do better this year considering AD/Bron literally took all the pressure off of him. Its understandable that not many plays were run for him and he didn't get shots in his sweet spots on the floor. But man if you can't make open shots and thrive with AD/Bron then I don't know what to say about him. Defensively he has improved quite a bit. Maybe we do have to adjust our expectations for him.
Kuz was focused on defensive improvers this season. I’m sure he can improve just as much on the offensive by the end next season now that he pretty much has the defense down. No idea if we’ll be able to keep him then, but I’m good with another title next season then letting him go if that’s how it plays out.
where did all the ariza comparisons come from, btw? i don't see the two as similar in almost any way. ariza was a defensive 2/3 with basically no individual offensive game to speak of. kuz is a 3/4 whose calling card is finding buckets and is working to improve defensively. anyway, i wasn't as disappointed with him as most, i guess. he played a key role on a title team by giving up some of his offensive role for the good of the whole. and he was paid near the vet min for it. win. we'll deal with the rest when the time comes.
I'm actually down with Buddy Hield..he's 27, shoots 40% from 3 on 10 attempts (!!!!!!!!!), and he compliments LeBron/AD perfectly. If we dumped Kuz/Green/2020 1st for him, I'm good with that.
Hield plays defense like a matador and I'm not sure of his shooting touch surviving a Laker tenure like others who come here, plus he's overpaid and looks like a horse.
No Hield. His contract extends out too long. We have to leave space available for next offseason to go big game hunting. We need to find a Lebron replacement (I realize no one is Lebron) so AD has a suitable running mate after he retires. If we have the lion's share of our money tied up in Buddy Hield and AD, when Lebron retires, we'll be the 2018 Pelicans.
I personally find Hield to be an intriguing piece. If you look at his salary: The highest money he will earn is in the beginning years. That would still give us a lot of money to compete in the future. He's really good value. The knock on him is his defense but I expect Vogel to be able to help him out there. The Kings are garbage offensively and have been for many years. It's tough to pin that all on Hield. Let's see how it changes when he's on a team that preaches defense. AD+Caruso+KCP would make his job a lot easier out there defensively. AD Caruso or Cousins (depending on line-up) KCP Hield LeBron In the playoffs, man, that is one elite team offensively out there with enough defense to make it challenging. I'm looking at the 2021 free agency but a lot of these players are on player options. Giannis and DeRozan are the only top players who are unrestricted. Who knows what those players will do? It's stacked if all the players opt-out but there is no guarantee and we still don't know what LeBron will do but I believe if we win a chip with Hield playing lights out, teams would be lining up to trade for Hield. IMO, it's worth the gamble on Hield since we're not exactly getting elite production from Green+Kuz. Buddy Hield shoots 42% from wide open threes. With AD+Bron passing it to him, the amount of wide open shots he will get... it's basically Klay-like but Klay gets $35 million next season and $40 million in three seasons whereas Hield would be half of that at $18 million. Defense will be the key to Hield's growth as a player for us.
Wow, you really think highly of him. I don't think his ceiling is anywhere near Siakam or Middleton MAYBE Brown in some ways. If he turned out to be Ariza I'd be pumped.
didn't realize his contract declined. that does make it more appealing. i'm still not throwing a 1st on top of it unless they're giving us one back that helps free up some trade possibilities when we have to give up picks to NO down the line. and i'd still prefer bodganovic at lower money/shorter years. feel like his market is probably 3 years 50-55 million, and we could swing that.
i guess he's a good whipping boy because of the fur coats and blonde hair or something. i saw a guy sacrifice his rep to win, tbh.
I’m absolutely with you, he did sacrifice to win, he played whatever role we asked of him, he didn’t have a great finals, but he was pretty great for most of the playoffs overall. He doesn’t seem happy in this role though, that’s the only reason I suggest trading him, while he still has value. Not because he sucks, but because he’s our best trade asset by far, because he doesn’t suck and he’s still on his rookie salary. There was a very telling quote posted either in the WCF or early in the Finals on Twitter from Kuz, talked about his sacrifice, but something along the lines of he knows he’s capable of more. I can’t recall who tweeted it, I think it was a female reporter, but I can’t find it at the moment. My whole point was if he’s not happy in this role long-term, and he’s not going to get the money he thinks he deserves here, which I don’t think he is, we are better trying to get value for him than let him walk.
King's owner Ranadive won't let Hield go, he overvalues him and thinks he is Steph Currey. Certainly not for that package.
THe question for me is will he grow up? In his first season he looked like the guy that had "it"...something Ball and Ingram didn't look like they have. Overtime and his social media activities show he is too immature for his age (24). He still argues with fans on his insta account, keeps making dumb posts etc. I was certain that out of the bunch he is the keeper. Ingram proved me wrong but anyways, I would look into trading him if we get a better complementary piece. I would rather milk LeBron's career and threepeat now rather than keep coming close and then suck when he retires. The time is now for us. If you have squeeze 1-2 more chips, you go for it now and worry about the future later.
I’m going to trust the FO on Kuzma. If they can get someone really good for him then cool. If not then we have another year of Kuz on an affordable contract and we run it back. No problem either way.
I think the issue is that Kuzma thinks he's better than he actually is but in reality he's just a solid role player for us, which is more of what we need but not what he's willing to do long term. Kuzma is on a bargain deal for us right now for what he can give to us, so I would say if you cant get good value for him, don't rush to trade him. That said, if someone like Dipo is available, you go and get him. But I wouldn't trade Kuzma for fricking Derrick Rose.
