The special chemistry between Los Angeles Lakers rookies Kyle Kuzma and Lonzo Ball has been obvious since the moment they both took the floor together at Las Vegas Summer League.
Kuzma never stops hustling and moving, and Ball seems to have a near-psychic ability to be able to find him at all times, something that has helped unclog the Lakers’ offense since Kuzma became a starter two games ago.
During a conversation with Shams Charania of the Vertical, Kuzma shared how the bond between the two was built during an offseason scrimmage in the Lakers facility:
“We had an open-gym scrimmage, me and Zo were on the same team, and we were killing guys,” Kuzma told The Vertical with a smile. “We were the only rookies in this open-gym setting, and I was running the floor and Zo was hitting me, making our connection. That clinched it for us, our connection. Zo had a lot of hype in college, so of course I knew who he is, but when I watched him he made that team better. The prior year, UCLA won [15] games. Then they went to the Sweet Sixteen mostly by adding him.
“I knew he had a special ability about him. We clicked pretty instantly, and the bond we built is really going to help us on the court.”
With Ball’s potential and how good Kuzma has played so far, any team would be thrilled to get either with a lottery pick in any year’s draft, much less grabbing both in the same one.
Drafting two players like that in one draft class gives any franchise a chance to start to build something special, and the Lakers got even luckier in that they drafted two kindred spirits who not only seem to love playing together but whose games fit perfectly and whose chemistry pops off the screen while watching them.
Ball and Kuzma’s success together might have been a surprise to the rest of the league, but if they were dominating veterans during one of their first open gyms as rookies, it’s no wonder they’ve seemed so nonplussed about their potency as a pairing. They’ve been preparing for this since June.
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