I have always viewed Kuz as a Hall of Fame YMCA ball player. Free flowing, fun to play, take lots of shots, with no priority on defense, except for the occasional steal. He doesn’t have to be a lockdown defender, but he should know the positioning so it doesn’t screw up everyone else.
I dont put blame on anyone. BI and Randle are not franchise players. Their skillsets do not win games. They are mid and high end role players. Nothing more.
Played the most minutes for us and put up 45 points in 24 hours. He's got the youngest legs out there, smart to let him do some of the heavy lifting especially early in the season. Percentages are up and the 3 ball is falling. Hopefully he keeps it up.
He'll get there, we just need to be patient. He was really rusty and probably still is, but he is a very gifted offensive player. He's also trying on D, but I won't say he's good yet. He used to be awful and right now he's doing sort of... OK. Let's put it that way. Coaching stuff needs to work with him on defense; but offensively, we can definitely count on him - especially when AD is not playing. There's no reason he can't score 20 on a regular basis.
Kuzma's defense hasn't improved. It's just our team defense is significantly better. Everyone is engaged - including LeBron. We are the first team to have six All-NBA defensive players in a roster since Bird's C Bags. That defensive mindset doesn't go away so naturally, everyone is benefitting from our team defense in terms of individual defense. We didn't retain Kuzma so he can play elite defense, though. The guy is a scorer and the past three games, he's shooting 9-19 from three while scoring 20 points in just under 26 minutes per game. My projected stats for Kuzma was 38% shooting from three, 6-8 rebounds, and 20-24 PPG. If he does that and we win the championship, he will have no issues getting the max from us.
Kuz isn't going to be a shot blocker or defender and we're going to have to live with that. The same way guys like Lou Williams and Jason Terry are just pure scorers off the bench, that's what Kuz is. The only thing he can probably work on his getting in the weight room and getting stronger so he doesn't get pushed around a lot and can body up instead of having to use his hands.
being smarter and getting in better positions, some one else stated he could learn a few things from Caruso
He's not going to be a great defender. Ever. I think he'll continue to improve, especially considering the coach, culture, and defensive minded teammates but it's going to be a long road (years) for him. But his offense is looking good and right now that's more important for helping out AD and Bron. We have defensive players. It's our offense that's been sputtering and in these past 3, he's been about that offense.
Dude’s not even cutting and attacking the rim yet....which explains his over reliance on the 3ball. Again, I can’t stress enough how sideways his injury can go if he doesn’t proceed with caution. A slow rev up is the way to go.
He's a very natural scorer... once he gets his sea legs he is going to be that reliable scorer off of the bench. He's a young player so he gets impatient, which manifests itself in shot selection. Other than the D, I was very happy about his offensive production and his energy. Certainly the Lakers are better when he is healthy and contributing.
Everyone on our roster are winners and team players. Nobody cares about their numbers, they all want to win. It is such a stark and apparent contrast with what we had with Ball, BI, Randle, DLO and the others. All those guys were trying to GET numbers. They had no idea how to win but they all had some need to have good numbers. I don't see guys like Green, Daniels, Cook, Caruso, Rondo, Dudley, Howard, McGee etc as being stat chasers. It's awesome man, they all know what they got in LBJ and AD, and they are happy to enable them to lead them, they all do their best to fill in the needs this team has. None of them is trying to "make a name for themselves". It's awesome man!!! Even LBJ is not caring about his numbers, he is just trying to do the things needed to make us win. The ONLY thing I think LBJ is forcing or pushing is to make AD the leader of this team. This team is better than I expected them to be, they still have a few weaknesses to work on, which they will. Anyone who continues to ride the BS narrative that our FO sucks and bringing LBJ and AD here was stupid is a pure idiot. Now, I don't know who was pushing that narrative in this post because I blocked all those people a month or two ago. Who is the person that seems to be setting everyone off in this thread?? One last thing, this team is not near it's peak and they are only going to get better. And did I say, IT'S AWESOME MAN!!!!!
Stop being a puss and unblock everyone so you can get annoyed like the rest of us when we are disagreed with over the course of this season.
We should stop I suppose. @Toklat is in LD looking for basketball talk and already left the KCP thread shaking his head. udleyshrug:
