Portland Trail Blazers Lakers target No. 3 – Kyle Kuzma
By far the most expensive and least likely of the three potential pickups, Kyle Kuzma would need to be a part of the Blazers’ long term plans for a signing to make sense.
While Kuzma becoming a long term Blazer seems improbable, his set of skills offer potential solutions to some of Portland’s worst problems.
Defensively, Kuzma would give Portland size and intensity that were sorely missed all season long, with the Blazers eventually ending the year as one of the worst defensive teams in the league.
While far from making the Defensive All-NBA shortlist, his abilities on this end of the floor contributed to the Lakers’ Bubble success.
In their playoff series with Portland, Kuzma earned a defensive rating of 94.2, second only to Alex Caruso. No one will argue these two were the driving force behind Los Angeles’ series win, but there is no denying their play helped put the Lakers over the edge.
Kuzma will never be the league’s best defender and in fact has faced criticism about his defense throughout the early years of his career. However, after showing clear improvements, Kuzma would surely boost Portland’s atrocious defense.
Offensively, Kuzma arguably has no one strong suit. However, as an athletic player with decent shooting skills, Kuzma can operate at any point of the court.
As much of an asset as Kuzma could be, he still has a year left in his contract and would need to be a part of a trade deal to end up in Portland. By no means should Portland give up any of their most valuable players. Even in theory, this move only makes sense if the Blazers keep their core pieces.
At 25 years old, Kuzma has the skill and experience to be a part of the “win now” mentality during Lillard’s prime, while also having the youth to join the likes of Jusuf Nurkić and Gary Trent Jr. into the next era of Blazer basketball, whenever that time may come.
Having just won a ring in L.A., it may be hard to deter him from rejoining purple and gold. That said, Kuzma saw career lows in points and minutes this past season, in large part due to the signing of Anthony Davis. If he is looking for a permanent starter role, the Pacific Northwest may be his perfect destination.