The Los Angeles Lakers feature a forward heavy lineup to begin the 2019-20 NBA season highlighted by LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and Kyle Kuzma.
While all of these players have the size and strength of power forwards, they all do very unique things for the team.
Although Kuzma is currently on a minutes restriction after making his debut against the Dallas Mavericks, he recently expressed his excitement about how well his game can eventually fit with James and Davis.
“I think that with me being a guy that can dribble, handle in pick-and-roll, I can pop, post, shoot threes, come off screens — I think it’s going to serve well,” Kuzma said before the Lakers took off for their three-game road trip.
Kuzma then specifically focused on how he’ll be of service to Davis, playing a similar role to what Nikola Mirotic did with the New Orleans Pelicans.
“If you look back at the Pelicans days when he was there, he played his best basketball when Mirotic was at the four and he was at the five,” Kuzma analyzed.
“I’m kind of similar in that aspect, spacing the floor and giving him space to operate down there. You can’t really double him when me, Bron and him are on the floor. It’s going to be exciting.”
This really is a perfect descriptor for what Kuzma will do for this team. James, Davis, and Kuzma all do things so differently and help in completely unique ways.
James is a small forward-power forward combination, but his ball handling and court vision makes him almost a Magic Johnson-type player.
Kuzma is a power forward at heart, but in the modern NBA game, he becomes a deadly weapon from anywhere on the court with his ability to stretch the floor.
And Davis files in as the truest power forward, who can shoot when he needs to but is comfortable beating anybody down low.
The way these three operate together will be a lot of fun to watch, and Lakers fans got a good sneak preview of that against the Mavericks.
If the trio can really figure it out with ease as Kuzma suggests, then championship contention is easily within reach for the purple and gold.
