When the Los Angeles Lakers completed a blockbuster trade for Anthony Davis, the one member of their young core that they were able to hold onto was Kyle Kuzma.
That worked out well as Kuzma was a valuable part of the 2020 championship team, embracing a lesser role and doing the dirty work alongside LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
Kuzma’s Lakers tenure eventually came to and end though as he was a part of the trade package to acquire Russell Westbrook in the summer of 2021. Since joining the Washington Wizards, Kuzma has continued to develop his game and is coming off a career year in which he averaged 22.2 points, 6.6 rebounds and 4.2 assists while shooting 46.3% from the field.
Knowing how poorly the Westbrook trade turned out for the Lakers, there likely is some regret there from the front office as they essentially gave up Kuzma, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Alex Caruso to make it happen.
While the Lakers got back to the Western Conference Finals in 2023, they haven’t sniffed another championship and may not again in the James and Davis era.
When reflecting on his Lakers tenure in an interview with All-Star Magazine’s Naveen Ganglani, Kuzma said he feels the organization gave up on him too quickly:
“For sure, 100 percent. I think it’s tough because they kind of gave up on me. They gave up on that team too a little too early. Probably panicked a little bit. But you know in the NBA, things happen fast, you never know what’s going to happen next. It’s always like a revolving door. So we had a tough little stretch, but it happens.”
Kuzma added that he feels the Lakers could have repeated as champions in 2021 if not for injuries to James, Davis and others:
“Yeah, for sure. Easily. I mean, we were up 2-1 and [AD] got hurt and it all went down the drain. That season was hard for us because Bron got hurt, Solomon Hill ran into him, AD was down. We had a lot of different lineups and we came back from the bubble where we won the championship in October and then we had to play like two months later, so naturally it was tough. But we would’ve won back-to-back.”
While it’s unclear if the Lakers would have indeed repeated, there’s no denying they would have had a good chance if their stars stayed healthy. At the end of the day though, there don’t seem to be any hard feeling on Kuzma’s side as he recently looked back fondly on the time he spent with James and Davis in L.A.
Dwight Howard blames Rob Pelinka for breaking up 2020 Lakers
Kyle Kuzma isn’t the only one that feels the 2020 Lakers team could have won more championships if they stayed together. Dwight Howard recently blaming general manager Rob Pelinka for breaking up what he believed could have been a dynasty.
“I’m going to tell you who it was,” Howard said. “Rob Pelinka, man! God, Rob. Why did you do that to us? Rob, come on. I still love you, Rob. We still had the squad and we could have run it back.”
Former Lakers assistant coach Phil Handy then went on to agree with Howard’s take, adding more fuel to the conversation.
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