The Lakers enter the NBA offseason in a familiar place, essentially where they were in the summer of 2022. A promising roster had proven to be a dud, the coach was fired and the team was on the hunt for a personnel overhaul. They got one by making smart, cost-effective signings of role players like Lonnie Walker, Juan Toscano-Anderson, Troy Brown and Thomas Bryant. The Lakers added a trade for Patrick Beverley.
There is still some question as to how the Lakers will approach this year’s offseason. The consensus is that they’ll be seeking a star-caliber player to add to the Antonio Davis–LeBron James duo, but doing so at a time when NBA salary rules make operating a roster dominated by three stars nearly impossible just doesn’t seem wise.
So perhaps the Lakers should be more targeted in how they approach this offseason—rather than simply winging for the biggest star they can find, why not target the right role players to maximize for James and Davis?
Why not, in the process, partially undo the most regrettable trade of the team’s recent history, when the Lakers sent Kyle Kuzma and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope to Washington for Russell Westbrook? Perhaps a Kuzma reunion is in everyone’s best interests.
Lakers Need a Third Option
That’s what one NBA executive told Heavy Sports in looking at the Lakers’ options.
“Trading Kuzma, they had to do that because he wanted to be The Man, and the thing is, he got to be The Man on a team that is a long way from being good,” the exec said. “But you have to hope that Kyle Kuzma has matured, that he is tired of his team getting kicked around all the time and he wants to win. They almost sent him to Dallas. So, we’ll see.
“He can go back to the Lakers and help them win. They need a 4 (power forward) who can score a bit. He’d fit if that is what he wants.”
Kuzma was a top dog with the Lakers when he first arrived in 2017, but after the acquisition of James, followed by Davis, he was relegated to a third option, and chafed at the role. He filled it well, though, and made a career-high 36.1% of his 3s while averaging 12.9 points in his final season as a Laker.
He signed a four-year, $102 million contract last summer with the Wizards, but one with descending salaries, the kind of deal, the exec said, “that is made to be traded.”
Kyle Kuzma Questions Linger
A few questions linger about the potential to bring back Kuzma, though, beginning with his willingness to be a third wheel.
Then there would be his shooting—the 36.1% was a career high, and that’s not all that high. With the Wizards, he has shot 33.6% from the arc, and the Lakers simply need better production than that. But Kuzma would get many more open looks playing with two stars who get a lot more defensive attention than he does.
And there would be the outgoing package.
The Wizards would insist on a first-round pick in a Kuzma deal, but they’re going to have a hard time getting one—the Lakers could wriggle around that by including last year’s first rounder, Jalen Hood-Schifino, with D’Angelo Russell if Russell opts in on his contract. The Lakers could then add a future second-rounder or two to sweeten the deal. The Wizards could either flip Russell in a trade or, possibly, waive him.
The Lakers will have options this offseason. A deal for Kuzma could be a low-cost risk worth taking.
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This article was originally published on Heavy.com
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