Lakers News: Kyle Kuzma Working Out With Kentavious Caldwell-Pope’s Shooting Coach

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

It has been clear ever since Kyle Kuzma was selected by the Los Angeles Lakers, he is an extremely hard worker who puts it the time and effort.

In two seasons with the Lakers, Kuzma has proven that he is here to stay but also knows there is plenty of room to improve.

One area that Kuzma is focused on improving this offseason is his shooting as he was pretty streaky in his second season. In particular, his three-point shooting dropped mightily in Year 2, shooting just 30.3% after knocking down 36.6% in his rookie season.

Of course, Kuzma is already hard at work making sure that doesn’t happen again and he has been working with Kentavious Caldwell-Pope’s shooting coach Chris Matthews, via Lethal Shooter Instagram:

It is truly great to see Kuzma putting in the work that he knows is necessary to get better for the 2019-20 NBA season. One of the team’s biggest issues was shooting and one way to improve it is internally. The best bet for that is Kuzma who has proven he can be a knockdown shooter.

What’s great for Kuzma is that it was some of the things he was already working on during the 2018-19 season, so he knows exactly what he needs to change in order to be a more consistent shooter as he previously explained to Kevin Ding of Lakers.com:

“I changed it literally six times this year. It was ridiculous,” he said. “It’s really crazy. It’s not even me changing it. It’s just like me changing little things like: ‘OK, you’ve got to land like this every time.’ Or ‘You’ve got to hold this tight every time.’ Or ‘You’ve got to flick it more every time.’ It’s always something different where it may work for a couple games, and I kind of get sidetracked, and it goes back.”​

Now with the entire offseason to work on those changes Kuzma was trying to make during the season, there is no reason to believe he won’t be much improved as a shooter next season.

Consistency is key and Kuzma has consistently put in the work so hopefully, he’ll be reaping the rewards heading into his third season.

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