Los Angeles Lakers: 2017-18 player grades for Kyle Kuzma

Weaknesses

What excited me about Kuzma when reviewing his rookie season is the lack of holes in his game. The weaknesses in his game are areas most rookies struggle in and should improve as his career progresses.

We’ll begin with on the offensive side of the floor where the first pair of weaknesses go hand in hand. Kuzma isn’t asked to handle the ball and initiate the offense, but his passing skills and vision are areas to work on this offseason. This is commonplace for young players and leads us to his next weakness in playing out of control at times.

The more comfortable he gets in the NBA, the more the game should slow down for him and result in better decisions with the ball and smarter passes within this pass-heavy system that Walton has installed.

Kuz exceeded expectations on the defensive end of the floor, but there were plenty of times he was late on a rotation. Like most of these weaknesses, this should occur less frequently with more playing time under his belt. He won’t be asked to protect the rim, so I’m not concerned about block numbers.