Kyle Kuzma was drafted with the 27th pick in the first round by the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2017 NBA Draft. Being a late first-round pick, not many expected him to blossom into anything more than just a role player. Fortunately for him, the Lakers were going through a major change during that time and he got a lot of opportunities to showcase his talents.
He captivated them and started to show signs of potential. Unfortunately, the arrival of Anthony Davis in Los Angeles pushed Kuzma on the back burner. Then began a series of underwhelming performances by the young Lakers player.
As a result, he received a lot of backlash from fans, which ultimately played a part in him getting traded to the Washington Wizards.
Now, it appears as if Kuzma has taken a subtle shot at his haters via sharing an Instagram post on his story. The post said:
“I knew I matured when I didn’t embarrass someone I could’ve destroyed.”
It is safe to assume that Kuzma probably read and heard the chatter about him when he was part of the Los Angeles Lakers. Well, now he has new opportunities ahead of him and he can make a comeback in the 2021-22 NBA season.
While the Lakers have a phenomenal roster, it means there is not much room for young players to get enough minutes on the floor.
With the Wizards, that shouldn’t be an issue for the former Los Angeles Lakers forward. If anything, he might play the best basketball of his career with the team.
Last season he averaged 12.9 points per game while playing 28.7 minutes per game. If he gets a similar amount of minutes on his new team, he might do even better. After all, he averaged nearly 20 points per game when allowed to shoot freely.
As for the expectations from the Washington Wizards as a whole unit, they do not rank that high in the power ranking for the next season. Currently, both conferences are flooded with amazing teams and losing a player of Russell Westbrook’s caliber certainly tanks the team’s value.
