The Los Angeles Lakers are aggressively pursuing a trade for New Orleans Pelicans superstar Anthony Davis, but right now, a key hangup seems to be the Lakers' unwillingness to part with Kyle Kuzma in a potential deal.
Right now, the Lakers seem to be offering Brandon Ingram, Lonzo Ball and the fourth overall pick in this year's NBA Draft, but according to Tania Ganguli and Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles may be able to keep the No. 4 pick out of the deal if it includes Kuzma.
Ganguli and Turner state that Kuzma has really made a home for himself with the Lakers, as LA has been very impressed with Kuzma on and off the floor. However, at the moment, it doesn't seem like the Pelicans will send Davis to the Lakers if Kuzma isn't part of the package.
It seems hard to believe that the Lakers would let go of their dream of pairing Davis with LeBron James just because of Kuzma, but they really like Kuzma and would seem to prefer to form a trio of James, Davis and Kuzma rather than sending Kuzma packing. Ultimately, though, one would think Los Angeles would relent if Kuzma is needed to push this across the finish line.
Kuzma is coming off a 2018-19 campaign in which he played 70 games and averaged 18.7 points, 5.5 rebounds and 2.5 assists over 33.1 minutes per game while shooting 45.6 percent from the floor, 30.3 percent from 3-point range and 75.2 percent from the free-throw line.
He also had an impressive rookie year in 2017-18, registering 16.1 points and 6.3 boards a night.
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