Los Angeles Lakers: Three players that are prone to disappointing in 2019

3. Kyle Kuzma

Kyle Kuzma is a huge fan-favorite on the Los Angeles Lakers and I can already see a lot of readers clicking off this page when they see his name. Kyle Kuzma is a good player, don’t get me wrong, but the table is absolutely set for him to have a disappointing third season.

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Kuzma was great for the Lakers right off the bat and was one of the biggest surprises of the 2017 NBA Draft as he was taken late in the first round. When it came to trade talks for Anthony Davis, Kuzma was the one young piece, not Lonzo Ball or Brandon Ingram, that the front office wanted to hold onto.

Now, without Kawhi Leonard and with DeMarcus Cousins out, Kuzma is being touted as the third guy in the Lakers “big three”. And while he might be the third-best player on the team, there is still a massive falloff from the top two guys to the third.

This isn’t even to say that Kuzma is going to have a bad year as I think we will see the same thing we have seen out of him in the last two years. He is going to have some huge nights, some blunders and will finish the year right around 18 points per night.

There is nothing wrong with that but that will still fall short of the lofty expectations that Laker fans have for Kuzma in his third season. His defense is still going to be a liability at times and it would not be all that shocking to see him out of the game in big moments because of it.

The thing about Kyle Kuzma in 2019 is not that he is going to regress. It is that the fans’ expectations have risen significantly, which is bound to lead to disappointment.