The Los Angeles Lakers may have gotten a huge rookie steal after witnessing the impressive performances of Kyle Kuzma in the Summer League. The 27th overall pick in last month’s draft had very solid averages of 21.9 points, including 51.4 percent shooting from the field, and 6.4 rebounds. He was even named the championship game’s MVP, which says a lot about the impact he made on his team.

However, an NBA scout still thinks there’s a lot more that he has to improve on, which could make him an even better player once the regular season starts.

The scout shared, via Sean Deveney of Sporting News, that Kuzma is still a raw talent, and needs to work on his game both on the offensive and defensive ends. He highlighted that he needs to understand the NBA defense first, and create shots for him in order to not just rely on his teammates to set him up.

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“He needs work defensively, but I think a lot of that is between the ears, just understanding NBA defense. Offensively, you don’t see him put it on the floor much, just about all his shots come off of teammates creating.”

The good news for the Lakers is that Kuzma is showing that he’s willing to work hard to earn his minutes amid the team's depth at the forward spots. However, if the 21-year-old Utah product can provide quality minutes every time he is fielded in, he may gradually receive more playing time as he earns the trust of Luke Walton.

It remains to be seen how Kuzma will play in the regular season, but he is expected to learn a lot from the team’s coaching staff as they will work closely on him to improve his game further. If he can make the most of it and translate it to consistent production, he may just turn to be the best player drafted late in the first round this year.