Lakers honor former teammates Kyle Kuzma, KCP before game

Kyle Kuzma walked onto the courtroom in Los Angeles, the gang already having serenaded him by yelling the primary syllable of his final identify.

Kuzma, an NBA champion with the Lakers, was again and able to take the ground in opposition to his outdated crew. He ran in direction of LeBron James, wrapped his arm round his former teammate after which … that was it.

Nobody else on the courtroom ever performed a second with Kuzma on the Lakers.

Lakers video games this season have advised us loads of what this crew is and isn’t, however Friday in opposition to the Washington Wizards was a reminder of what they was once — and the way a lot they’ve modified since.

As a part of the unsuccessful roster overhaul that adopted final season, the Lakers despatched Kuzma and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope to Washington as a part of the bundle to amass Russell Westbrook.

James traded dunks with Kuzma, received sizzling from deep and pushed life right into a crowd watching one other so-so Lakers efficiency. No less than James was there, the uncommon reminder of higher days.

Earlier than that, the most important cheers have been for the previous Lakers, whom the crew honored with a video tribute within the first quarter.

Earlier than the sport, Lakers coach Frank Vogel stated he went to joke together with his crew concerning the coverages he wished to throw at Kuzma solely to comprehend that the Lakers had simply two lively gamers — James and Talen Horton-Tucker — who had performed with him.

Vogel fondly remembered Kuzma’s game-winner within the NBA bubble in opposition to Denver — a shot Kuzma stated he nonetheless would’ve taken even when Jesus have been guarding him.

“Kuz is a enjoyable man to teach. He actually is a enjoyable man to be round day by day and to speak the sport,” Vogel stated. “He likes to assume the sport. He likes to study and develop.”

With the Wizards, Kuzma has been given extra of an opportunity to take action, taking up better obligations, significantly on offense, with out James and Anthony Davis taking on a lot of the offensive oxygen.

Kuzma entered Friday averaging 17.2 factors, 8.7 rebounds and three.4 assists for the Wizards, beginning each sport.

His new coach, Wes Unseld Jr., was a Nuggets assistant when Kuzma hit that game-winner within the bubble.

“Whenever you play in opposition to a man like that being out within the West, you gameplan for him in another way, as a result of he’s in a sure function. Now that you’ve got even have an opportunity to teach him, there’s much more layers to it,” Unseld stated. “There’s much more versatility, flexibility that he brings. You have a look at a man and I feel as a result of he performs a sure approach for a sure crew, you don’t understand his whole bundle, the entire ability set he brings to your group. So it’s been enlightening, but it surely’s been wide-eyed shock to see the issues he’s in a position to do and do at a excessive stage.”

After which there’s Caldwell-Pope, an underrated member of the Lakers’ championship crew. He’s additionally performed effectively in Washington, averaging 12.3 factors whereas hitting higher than 39% of his threes.

“They’ll at all times be household,” Vogel stated. “We gained the championship collectively. And only a actual optimistic with each of these two particular person gamers in my time right here, within the two years that we have been collectively. I used to be very sorry to see them go. That’s the character of this enterprise.”

The participant they received in return, Westbrook, couldn’t construct off a very good sport in Houston, making simply two of 11 pictures. He was booed after lacking a layup.