Los Angeles Lakers forward Kyle Kuzma turned in his best individual outing of the season on Saturday, leading a Lakers team playing without LeBron James and Anthony Davis to a 125-110 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder. Kuzma poured in a season-high 36 points on 15-of-24 shooting in the road victory.
When whether his outstanding play of late has been a result of trade rumors, Kuzma downplayed that notion:
https://twitter.com/hmfaigen/status/1216208851361419265
Kuzma has been playing considerably better since returning from an ankle injury that sidelined him for over a week in December. Through this 10-game stretch, the third-year forward is averaging 17.6 points and 4.6 rebounds while shooting 44.5 percent from the field in roughly 27 minutes a night.
Those numbers are a far cry from his first 20 games of the season, when he netted just 11.1 points per game on 43.3 shooting in just 23 minutes per game.
Kuzma recently went on record saying that he plays a lot better when he is given more playing time. That has certainly been the case over these last few games, especially Saturday night without LeBron and AD getting the lion's share of touches and shots.
Kuzma has seen his name pop up in all sorts of trade rumors over these past few weeks. There has been speculation that the Lakers want to improve their roster as they prepare for a deep run in this year's playoffs in the hopes of winning the NBA championship in June.
With that said, Kyle Kuzma might be their best trade chip to land a valuable piece that can further improve their chances to win the title. The Lakers have until Feb. 6 to mull over whether the 24-year-old can truly be a key piece for their championship aspirations this season.
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