Tag: Rob Pelinka

Report: Lakers are willing to listen to Kyle Kuzma trade offers

Kyle Kuzma’s talent as a scorer gives him trade value as the trade deadline approaches.

Los Angeles Lakers forward Kyle Kuzma has had an up and down season, but as a skilled scorer, he remains a valuable trade option for the Lakers.

According to The Athletic’s Sam Amick, the Lakers “have shown a recent willingness to listen to pitches for Kuzma,” a change in the previous reporting on how the Lakers view Kuzma. On Friday, The Athletic’s Shams Charania reported that the Lakers see Kuzma “as a core part of the future.”

Last season Kuzma, 24, emerged as one of the best young players in the NBA. He averaged a career-high 18.7 points per game and shot a career-high 45.6% from the field. As a second-year player last season, Kuzma ranked fourth among sophomores in points per game.

This season has been different, though. Kuzma has dealt with an ankle injury, and he missed the first four games of the season because of a stress reaction he suffered in his left foot before the season.

Kuzma is scoring 12.1 points per game, but he’s not playing as much compared to last season. This season he’s playing 23.6 minutes a game, whereas last season he played 33.1 minutes, due in large part to the fact Anthony Davis prefers to play Kuzma’s natural power forward spot.

For the Lakers, keeping Kuzma on and seeing if he plays better could prove to be beneficial. Despite a slow start this season, Kuzma is still talented. His ability to score in multiple ways is his best attribute. The Lakers need more bench scoring, too, as they rank 16th in the category (35.7), according to NBA.com. 

Also, Kuzma’s low salary as he remains on a rookie contract may make it more difficult for the Lakers to find a suitable trade partner that improves their team with more proven veteran talent. Kuzma has also tried to make it clear that the comments by his trainer about LeBron James following the Christmas Day loss were something out of his control.

The Lakers will look to extend their win streak to five games against the Detroit Pistons on Sunday.

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Lakers listening to offers for Kyle Kuzma

Jokes aside, here’s the real question some executives are asking about the 24-year-old forward: Will Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka eventually send him packing to upgrade the Lakers’ roster for a title run? As our Shams Charania reported Friday, teams are monitoring his situation and wondering whether he can be had before the Feb. 6 trade deadline. What’s more, sources now say the Lakers have shown a recent willingness to listen to pitches for Kuzma. And … we’re off — sort of. From the Lakers’ perspective, this open-phone-lines approach is merely a case of Pelinka doing due diligence as opposed to having substantive discussions. If only because nothing of real interest has come their way — yet.

The Lakers’ other chief potential trade …

The Lakers’ other chief potential trade chip is Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who makes $8.1 million this season with a player option for $8.5 million next year. But he would have to approve a trade. Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka is interested in upgrading his team, but activity likely won’t come until closer to the deadline. Caldwell-Pope, by the way, scored 13 points on 5-of-8 shooting. The Lakers got little from Danny Green (2 of 8) and Avery Bradley (1 of 5).

Players have praised his eagerness to …

Players have praised his eagerness to teach—and how he goes about doing it. James has completely bought in. The assistant coaches have fallen in line. Any early season list for Coach of the Year has to have Vogel’s name at the top of it. “There’s a great attention to detail [with Vogel],” Lakers GM Rob Pelinka told SI.com in the preseason. “And I also quickly learned that he’s a collaborative thinker, but then a decisive decision-maker. I think sometimes collaborators can overthink things too much and then not be able to make a decision, but he takes input and then he’s decisive with his decision. And I think we wanted to have a more structured, accountable philosophy with the basketball here, and he fit that.”

At the time, the belief was that Lakers …

At the time, the belief was that Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka negotiated Howard’s contract to be non-guaranteed so that the team could ties with him if he didn’t buy into his role, but apparently that wasn’t the case. During an appearance on ESPN’s “The Jump,” senior writer Ramona Shelburne said that it was Howard and his agent that suggested that his contract be non-guaranteed (emphasis mine): “I think with Dwight, it also goes back to why the Lakers signed that contract with him that way in the first place. Dwight asked for that. That was his idea. That wasn’t the Lakers saying ‘oh this is the only way we’ll do it.’ This was Dwight and his agent saying ‘yes, we’ll do non-guaranteed just to show you how committed we are to being this kind of player.’”