Lakers Rumors: Three reasons Kyle Kuzma is their best rookie
By Keith Rivas
He can be their leading scorer in no time
After dealing both Lou Williams and D’Angelo Russell, the Lakers lost two of their top scorers in the process. Jordan Clarkson has a chance to be at the top, but Kyle Kuzma has the most realistic shot.
This would be interesting on the front office side of things because Magic Johnson predicts that Brandon Ingram will be the scoring leader for the team.
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One of the reasons that Kuzma can be the leading scorer is that he’ll get to continue that chemistry he put on display during Summer League. Ball and Kuzma can both be deadly from range, while the focus on Ingram will be for him to get bigger and battle more inside.
So long as Kuzma can keep them coming from downtown, the Lakers will have an insanely young and talented one-two punch from the 2017 draft. His actual scoring average could widely vary, but it’s safe to say it could be at least 17 points per game, with a ceiling of around 25.
Sounds crazy for a rookie to do that, sure, but think of what type of environment Kuzma has landed in. Lonzo Ball’s focus is going to be making the team better, not his individual scoring effort or ability.
This wouldn’t be all bad news for Ingram though, as he’ll still be able to average a heavy amount of points per game. However, if it did happen this way, it could change the view of untouchable that the Lakers seem to have on the former Duke forward and 2016 second overall pick.