Kyle Kuzma is making Los Angeles Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka look really smart these days. Kuzma is turning out to be one of the steals of the 2017 NBA Draft with his strong play over the first few weeks of his career. And according to Pelinka, Kuzma was the “perfect” type of player the Lakers were looking for at No. 27 all along.
“We all felt Kyle gave us the architect of what we want in a player: the toughness, the grit, the versatility being able to play and defend multiple spots, and playing the positionless basketball we do under Coach [Luke] Walton,” Pelinka told Shams Charania of The Vertical. “Kyle was the perfect selection for us there.”
While Kyle Kuzma may have flashed most, if not all of those qualities Rob Pelinka mentioned, the Lakers probably didn’t expect his offensive game to be quite as polished after a good, but not great, three-year career at Utah. Kuzma’s excellent play in Summer League and preseason has translated to the regular season, as he’s averaging 15.4 points on 56 percent shooting in 29 minutes per game.
And as good as Kyle Kuzma has been offensively so early in his career, he has even more room to grow defensively. If he does live up to his potential on that end of the court, the Lakers may very well have that “perfect” player they wanted, and so much more.
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