Smith would probably play his role better. Makes me sad to say it, but I really have a feeling it's true.
I don't blame management for keeping Kuzma over Hart because Josh wasn't good last season... but this year the difference is drastic. Josh is more efficient with his shooting, he's been tenacious on defense, he's stronger and more physical, he's rebounding better. https://www.basketball-reference.co...uzma&y2=2020&player_id2=kuzmaky01&idx=players I don't think Kuzma has lost the ability to play, but I'm not sure he has the ability to redefine himself with the superior AD taking his role. In retrospect, it should have been clear that Hart was the better fit... that there wasn't much point to using Kuz in an AD dominant lineup. Maybe some Lakers staff might have seen it, but who's going to have the balls to say "let's keep Hart" when he's coming off his own sophomore slump season. In management's mind it was a PR coup to keep media darling Kuzma, but he's redundant on this team. I had always wanted to keep Ingram in spite of his poor fit, because I had visualized him as the eventual replacement for Bron when he was 36 or 37 and BI was 23 or 24... but in this case Kuzma is only two year younger than AD, so he'll never really fit in. He is still capable of catching fire... and if we get over early playoff jitters and go on a run... maybe he'll shock us with a few Kuzma offensive explosions. He's definitely more capable of putting up 20 plus points than Hart... where Josh is more the type who will just score 12 points over and over again with solid defense and rebounding. But unless LBJ against all odds manages to have another amazing year next season (due to being 36)... we probably should recover a draft pick by trading Kuzma
Of course you'd want to keep Ingram. Everyone would've done that, but... the Pelicans kind of knew he was better than Kuzma too. I don't think giving them Kuz and keeping Ingram was ever an option. They are not fools.
I'm aware the odds of keeping Ingram were low... although I referenced the Ganguli report that at one point Kuzma was coveted by the Pels. Some here thought that was simply misdirection by the Pels staff... but remember that BI was a huge wild card because of the clotting issues. But my point here was discussing fit... it's not a case where you'd have BI replacing Bron... but a case where you'd have AD and Kuzma rebuilding together. Maybe they thought he can adjust better to a three role... but he's just doesn't seem strong and quick enough to stay on the better wings. He's trying but he's clumsy against the smaller guys and he's too weak against the bigger ones. This might work if he was on fire offensively... but that hasn't happened enough to justify the mediocre D. Kuzma is still a good player... but he's never going to be even Jrue Holiday to AD. That's why I say if you can get a pick in the next draft maybe you do it. It all depends on whether LBJ still has one great year left. If we can still hang with the healthy Warriors and Clippers... maybe we keep him one more year. But if LBJ can no longer carry us... maybe we get rid of Kuz in preparation for the new star we use to pair with AD.
yeah, guess i disagree with everyone here? no to green, waiters, or jr smith getting kuz's minutes. and given that bradley, green, and caruso all capably play sg for us, i don't see how having hart would help. i guess we could have spent green/bradley money on, say, bogdanovic or something had we moved kuz. but given the kawhi pursuit, that would never have happened. so, no, i don't wish we kept hart, and no, i don't think a currently unemployed player is likely to be an improvement.
You raise some good points there. Our FO needs to really think about this and prepare for the summer, whatever happens this year. I mean, Kuz is OK, but he's just not the kind of guy who can simply adapt his game. On one side you have Bron - a player so good that he can just start transforming himself into Magic freaking Johnson at the age of 35. On the other hand, young Kuz is who he is. He's improved his D some, but he just can't find a way to fit well with AD. And to makes things worse it affects him mentally to the point he looks disinterested on the floor. I actually like the kid, but it seems more and more obvious that he is incapable of reinventing himself and it might be better for everyone if we could find a decent trade; one that - as you mentioned - maybe gets us a pick. We draft well in general, we can find another Alex Caruso or something, who knows... I'm not 100% convinced JR or any other veteran is actually the answer, but I'm just out of ideas at this point. I just know I wasn't high on giving up both Kuz and Green for some other random player in the middle of the season.
I don't want Green or Waiters but I'd take JR's 288 more 3 pointers in the playoffs (assuming he's in shape) https://www.basketball-reference.co...t=Kyle+Kuzma&player_id2=kuzmaky01&idx=players JR is a bonehead but his assist turnover ratio is still better than Kuzma's. (I still want IT because of the FTs... we need people who can hit FTs in crunch time)
Talk is Gordon was available at the trade deadline. I would have offered Kuzma, THT, and Green and ran with that. Man what a missed oppurtunity
You guys are crazy if you think JR Smith is bringing anything this to this team. He was a key member of the title team for the Cavs and he played really well the season before. But after the title it was downhill, his defense has significantly gotten worse and he's doesn't have the athleticism he had so can't get off jumpers in tight spaces like he used to, and on top of that, he's a bonehead. Even when he was younger he could not guard SF's well (Rudy Gay, for example, would just destroy him) and so doesn't really fit the need the Lakers have. The reason the Lakers kept Kuzma is pretty obvious; his contract wasn't big enough to be a filler for the AD trade (ala Ingram) and the hope was his catch and shoot ability with the size of a 3/4 would be perfect to slide in between AD and Lebron when the Lakers went with AD at the 5. Can't really do that with either hart or ball. The conundrum that has occurred is that the AD/Lebron/Kuzma lineups do look good but he looks like crap when he's not in that situation so you can't trust him in the 4th quarter. This team is really freakin good and Kuzma has the skillset and size that should be a perfect fit but if he can't play him in the 4th a guy like Harkless becomes a the way to go
I'm still holding hope that something clicks with Kuz and he becomes a key to a successful run in the playoffs/
I know he talked about wanting to find ways to win the game other than scoring. His rebounding in some games looked impressive, defense has somewhat been more active. It feels like he’s just waiting for a time to go all out like we’ve seen him do. But man is it frustrating.
Liverpool fan since '96. Mostly s*** until recently. Well, I guess we did win Champions League in '05, but pretty frustrating for the entirety of my fandom.
Kuzma will be fine - he showed he had moments without LBJ/AD - he's basically our insurance for either guy when they're not playing. We need to play him a lot more though if we're going to get any utility from him - 20mpg is unacceptable and it's on Vogel to find him minutes with the right lineups (STOP PLAYING HIM WITH RONDO!)
