Kyle Kuzma’s level of confidence and self-assuredness is one of the main things that has endeared him to the fans of the Los Angeles Lakers. In fact, Kuzma is arguably the most popular of all the team’s young players.
With the addition of LeBron James this summer, expectations have certainly risen, but predictions have been inconsistent. Some believe the Lakers will be among the West’s elite teams while others aren’t even sure they’ll make the playoffs.
Kuzma believes that people are underestimating the Lakers. One reason why that may be the case is because the team has a lot of new players who aren’t used to playing with each other.
The second-year forward explained why he isn’t worried about that via Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN:
“A lot of people say we got a lot of different people, a lot of new people,” added Kuzma, who also is holding a three-day camp for children in his hometown. “But change can be a good thing. It is not necessarily always a bad thing. There’s a lot of teams in the NBA that need to work on their chemistry; we are just one of them.”
Kuzma does bring up a good point. The Golden State Warriors, Houston Rockets and San Antonio Spurs for instance, have all made major additions this summer and will need to develop chemistry with those new pieces.
The Lakers are simply one of many teams who will have to figure things out on the fly. How long it takes for everything to gel will be up to players and coaches.
The talent is there for the Lakers to make a splash in the Western Conference. Developing that chemistry will be key to how far they can go, but Kuzma clearly believes the Lakers will be just fine.
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