Los Angeles Lakers: Why LA should trade Kyle Kuzma over Lonzo Ball
By Jason Reed
1. Keeping Lonzo Ball makes much more sense for the entire roster
One thing to keep in mind if the Los Angeles Lakers make this deal is that the young star that the Lakers do not trade will be on the team during all of the title-contending years. With that in mind, the Lakers want to keep someone who is talented, sure, but also complements the duo of James and Anthony.
Ball fits that billing much more naturally than Kuzma does and leaves the Lakers roster in a decent spot. Meanwhile, keeping Kuzma would create rotational headaches for Luke Walton and would create extremely thin areas of the roster.
If the Lakers were to package Ball with Ingram that would mean that the team would only have one reliable point guard in Rajon Rondo. While the team could call up Alex Caruso or Isaac Bonga, no contending team should have Caruso or Bonga as their second-best point guard.
Plus, the Lakers don’t really need another forward. Anthony Davis would play the four and LeBron would play the three with JaVale McGee and Tyson Chandler getting time at center. With LeBron and Davis getting so many minutes, the path for playing time for Kuzma at forward would shrink drastically.
On the other hand, the team would be able to keep Ball, run a two-man rotation alongside Rondo and would just have to figure out who to partner in the rotation with Josh Hart. That is easy, though, as the team still has Lance Stephenson and potentially Sviatoslav Mykhaiuliuk on the bench.