Kyle Kuzma walked onto the courtroom in Los Angeles, the group already having serenaded him by yelling the primary syllable of his final identify.
Kuzma, an NBA champion with the Lakers, was again and able to take the ground in opposition to his outdated group. He ran in direction of LeBron James, wrapped his arm round his former teammate after which … that was it.
Nobody else on the courtroom ever performed a second with Kuzma on the Lakers.
Lakers video games this season have informed us loads of what this group is and isn’t, however Friday in opposition to the Washington Wizards was a reminder of what they was — and the way a lot they’ve modified since.
As a part of the unsuccessful roster overhaul that adopted final season, the Lakers despatched Kuzma and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope to Washington as a part of the bundle to accumulate Russell Westbrook.
James traded dunks with Kuzma, obtained scorching from deep and pushed life right into a crowd watching one other so-so Lakers efficiency. A minimum of James was there, the uncommon reminder of higher days.
Earlier than that, the most important cheers had been for the previous Lakers, whom the group honored with a video tribute within the first quarter.
Earlier than the sport, Lakers coach Frank Vogel mentioned he went to joke together with his group concerning the coverages he needed to throw at Kuzma solely to understand that the Lakers had simply two energetic gamers — James and Talen Horton-Tucker — who had performed with him.
Vogel fondly remembered Kuzma’s game-winner within the NBA bubble in opposition to Denver — a shot Kuzma mentioned he nonetheless would’ve taken even when Jesus had been guarding him.
“Kuz is a enjoyable man to teach. He actually is a enjoyable man to be round day by day and to speak the sport,” Vogel mentioned. “He likes to suppose the sport. He likes to be taught and develop.”
With the Wizards, Kuzma has been given extra of an opportunity to take action, taking up better tasks, notably on offense, with out James and Anthony Davis taking over a lot of the offensive oxygen.
Kuzma entered Friday averaging 17.2 factors, 8.7 rebounds and three.4 assists for the Wizards, beginning each recreation.
His new coach, Wes Unseld Jr., was a Nuggets assistant when Kuzma hit that game-winner within the bubble.
“If you play in opposition to a man like that being out within the West, you gameplan for him otherwise, as a result of he’s in a sure function. Now that you've got even have an opportunity to teach him, there’s much more layers to it,” Unseld mentioned. “There’s much more versatility, flexibility that he brings. You take a look at a man and I feel as a result of he performs a sure method for a sure group, you don’t notice his whole bundle, the entire talent set he brings to your group. So it’s been enlightening, however it’s been wide-eyed shock to see the issues he’s capable of do and do at a excessive stage.”
After which there’s Caldwell-Pope, an underrated member of the Lakers’ championship group. He’s additionally performed nicely in Washington, averaging 12.3 factors whereas hitting higher than 39% of his threes.
“They’ll at all times be household,” Vogel mentioned. “We gained the championship collectively. And only a actual optimistic with each of these two particular person gamers in my time right here, within the two years that we had been collectively. I used to be very sorry to see them go. That’s the character of this enterprise.”
The participant they obtained in return, Westbrook, couldn’t construct off a great recreation in Houston, making simply two of 11 photographs. He was booed after lacking a layup.
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