Ever since Summer League there has been a bond formed between rookies Lonzo Ball and Kyle Kuzma. The two are constantly joking with each other and often engage in post-practice shooting contests against Los Angeles Lakers coaches.
Shooting isn’t all they can do, however, as both are extremely underrated athletes capable of throwing down some impressive dunks. They showed off that leaping ability after practice in Miami on Wednesday.
Using the wall as a prop, both Kuzma and Ball threw down some strong dunks that would’ve fit right in at the Slam Dunk Contest, via the Lakers official Twitter account:
Wednesday Throw Downs ???? pic.twitter.com/L0KhXgi6dz
— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) February 28, 2018
Pulling out dunks like these could’ve potentially gotten one of them a Slam Dunk Contest crown this year. Throwing the ball off the wall was equivalent to the first dunk of Donovan Mitchell’s first dunk. Coincidentally, that was the exactly what TNT analyst Kenny Smith pointed out during the actual contest.
Kuzma’s windmill was also extremely impressive and reminiscent of the ones Larry Nance Jr. threw down. Just coming close to the picture-perfect windmill that Nance threw down is a feat in itself.
This is also a good thing to see from Lonzo, who continues to recover from a sprained MCL. The Lakers are playing it very cautious in his return, keeping him on a minutes restriction and not letting him play back-to-backs, but he seems to be responding fine and effortlessly throwing down a 360 dunk is definitely a good sign.
Hopefully these two will be able to throw some of these down in games. Kuzma has had a couple of close calls where he was just inches away from putting someone on a poster, including Philadelphia 76ers All-Star Joel Embiid. It seems like only a matter of time before he or Lonzo claim a victim on the court.
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