30 NBA Players in 30 Days: Kyle Kuzma
It’s day 7 of countdown to the NBA season, and we bring our attention to the Washington Wizards, where it feels like basketball limbo is taking hold of the franchise. The player I want to key in on is their forward from Flint, Michigan, Kyle Kuzma. He tweeted recently that he is know 6’10 ½ with shoes on, and when he entered the league he was 6’9 ¼ with shoes on. While I don’t think that Kuzma’s growth will automatically help the Wizards be more successful this season, there’s some optimism at least entering training camp this year with the roster and mix of players that they have. Star guard Bradley Beal just signed a 5-year supermax extension at the start of free agency this year, and Kristaps Porziņģis is apparently fully healthy and 7 pounds slimmer (so he’s a skinnier twig?), which he says will help him. Even with rookie Johnny Davis entering the conversation, and another year of growth for 2020 top pick Deni Avdija, Kuzma is the X-factor for the Wizards this upcoming season.
Last year Kuzma put up career highs in his non-scoring stats and looked like a more well-rounded player on both sides of the ball. He posted 17.1 PPG, 8.5 RPG, 3.6 APG, 45.2 FG%, and 34.1 FG3%. His playmaking stood out the most as he was pretty much the best player on the team with Beal playing 40 games due to a torn ligament in his left wrist. In a much bigger role with the Wizards, Kuzma’s game grew exponentially, and he was able to show off other facets that he just couldn’t really use during his time with the LeBron led Lakers. His skillset is a solid fit alongside Beal and Porziņģis, as long as they get a lot of minutes together on the floor. I don’t know if it was because he was on the Lakers or if it is because he gets made fun of on social media for his “interesting” outfit choices, but Kuzma has always been an intriguing player since he entered the league. The combination of size, length, and skill has been proven to be successful in the NBA, and with him starting the prime years of his career, I expect to see the best version of Kuzma this season and moving forward.
Assuming Beal and Porziņģis will be playing more games this year, I think there are parts to Kuzma’s game that will shine. His scoring will go up as long as his FG3% goes up. He shot league average from beyond the arc last year, and I would love to see him reach his career high from when he was on the Lakers at 36.6% in 2017–2018. I would not say Kuzma is a natural shooter like Michael Porter Jr. or Cam Johnson, but he could get hot pretty quickly. Kuzma being able to play off Beal on the perimeter will open up his passing, leading to a more free-flowing offense. He is not a natural facilitator or an elite playmaker, but is pretty overlooked as a play connector. I could see him making more touch passes to cutters and skip passes to weak side shooters a lot this season. The most improvement that Kuzma needs to show is on the defensive end. Posting a 114.3 Defensive Rating could be a little misleading when you’re on a team that isn’t very good defensively, but it does not help that he is only 2 points better than Porziņģis, who is well-known around the league to be a 7’3 revolving door. He shows really nice flashes of weak side help defense, being able to challenge most guys at the rim, and he has the size to guard most 3’s and 4’s around the league. Considering he grew an inch, he can possibly play a little small-ball 5 defensively, if the Wizards choose to play faster in certain lineups.
Kuzma’s impact on the Wizards won’t be relied on his scoring. They have enough punch with Beal and Porziņģis on that front, and if he is your third best scorer, that’s certainly competent at the NBA level. What will really propel him and the Wizards will be what he is able to do off the ball. We’ve seen him on the lowly Lakers having a career year in scoring, they didn’t win 40 games. The defensive versatility he can provide, along with improving his shot from behind the arc can really boost the team’s performance throughout the season.
