Lakers Rumors: Three reasons Kyle Kuzma is their best rookie
By Keith Rivas
He can literally play well enough to push the Lakers into a trade
With what we saw during the summer from Kuzma, another impressive thing to consider is that he can be effective from downtown. Like Ball, Kuzma can scan the court quickly and showed he likes to get buckets.
Julius Randle has been at the center of Lakers trade rumors in the past, but like D’Angelo Russell, could see his time end in LA this season. One of the reasons the Lakers may have to end up trading him is that Kuzma excels far more than Randle or Larry Nance Jr. at power forward.
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They could also trade Nance Jr., but that may only be if a package deal gets them the most value. Lonzo Ball didn’t have to play a player out of a job, as the Lakers made the move to prepare for him instead.
Ball could still fall flat, as we saw in his initial Summer League game. Kuzma is in a perfect spot to really steal the show in Los Angeles and prove to the Lakers fans and brass that he knows how to play the game exceptionally well.
There’s a number of ways that Los Angeles could try and make a Randle trade work. And depending on what the market and returns look like, they could even end up keeping him — but just as a reserve.
Lastly, Kuzma’s chemistry with Ball could be the final straw for starting Randle. It’s clear that the front office wants things to revolve around both Ball and Brandon Ingram. That seems to matter almost more than anything else.