With consistently excellent performances in Summer League and now in preseason, Los Angeles Lakers forward Kyle Kuzma is quickly looking like the steal of the 2017 draft.
The Lakers picked Kuzma No. 27 overall, and according to The Ringer’s Kevin O’Connor, the rookie is already causing some rival executives to regret not drafting him earlier.
“We’re kicking ourselves,” a front-office executive told me. “We hoped he’d fall farther to us. He’s a complete player.” They’re not alone. A trainer said Kuzma “perfectly” fits the model for today’s stretch 4, while noting the Lakers would be “crazy” not to start him over fourth-year power forward Julius Randle. An executive of a team that passed on the junior from Utah said that Kuzma’s quick improvement in such a short amount of time is an aberration. The 6-foot-9 forward’s skills were clear, but no one could’ve expected him to be this good this soon.”
Anyone who says they foresaw Kuzma being this good this quickly, particularly in terms of his shooting, is probably lying. Kuzma was an okay player in college, but he was a 30 percent 3-point shooter in three years at Utah and didn’t even average over one made three per game during his junior year. But now, he's turned into a consistent knockdown shooter from downtown.
That’s just the nature of the draft, though. There always seems to be one or two players every year who fall through the cracks and go in the late-first or second round, only to blossom into stars. It remains to be seen if Kuzma will warrant inclusion in that group, but the early returns are certainly promising.
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