Did a four-month layoff help Kyle Kuzma rediscover his jump shot?由asjkfj 发表在翻译团招工部 https://bbs.hupu.com/fyt-store
These are, of course, things that have been said about Kuzma before.
At times, he looks like a star and, in other moments, an overeager shot taker.
After he shot an inefficient 4-for-13 in the first of three scrimmages on Thursday against Dallas, it was easy to think that Kuzma, despite the positive chatter out of Lakers camp, had not changed much at all. But then came Saturday against the Magic.
A day after his 25th birthday, Kuzma poured in a game-high 25 points on 10-of-13 shooting while knocking down five 3-pointers, the most in any of his games this season, in a 119-112 victory.
“What he did today,” Frank Vogel said, “he did all through our ‘restart training camp’ so to speak. I’m just really excited about what the restart is going to look like for him.”
And so the pendulum swings for Kuzma. No longer the youthful starter with a green light like he was in the days Luke Walton stalked the sideline, Kuzma has seen his minutes and scoring drop as the Lakers’ sixth man. Last season, he averaged 18.7 points in 33.1 minutes. This year: 12.5 points in 24.6 minutes.
But as Kuzma’s role on a deep and veteran team has necessarily diminished, it also has grown in importance.
Which is why a game like the one he turned in on Saturday is so intriguing.
It’s not like it was entirely out of nowhere. Kuzma has had big games this season. But his two best scoring efforts came when the Lakers were without one or both of their superstars. On Jan. 10, he scored 26 points with Anthony Davis out of the lineup. The next night he exploded for a season-high 35 against Oklahoma City when both LeBron James and Davis sat out.
And even though the Lakers lost Davis in the first quarter on Saturday after he was poked in the eye, the victory over Orlando reignited that spark of hope for what Kuzma can be.
Both he and Vogel said the performance could be traced back to nearly a year ago, when Kuzma suffered a foot injury while playing with Team USA. That knocked him out of Lakers training camp in September and kept him sidelined until the fifth game of the regular season.
“It’s tough to have your legs under you if you don’t have the training camp everybody else had,” Vogel said.
Because Kuzma was dealing with a lower-body injury, he was limited in what he could do.
“Especially lifting weights,” Kuzma said. “I couldn’t really bear any weights lower body-wise to get ready for the season.”
Suddenly, you start to see the value of an interrupted season and a second training camp for a player like Kuzma. In the nearly four months between the Lakers’ last practice on March 11 and their arrival in the Orlando bubble, there wasn’t much Kuzma could do other than lift weights and work on his shot.
“I just been in the league long enough to know what I need to fix,” Kuzma said, “and just a lot of self-reflection. Just little things that help my confidence.”
Prior to the shutdown, Kuzma’s 3-point percentage had dipped below 30 percent. But on Saturday, Kuzma checked in midway through the first quarter and promptly buried four 3s before the end of the period — each one without so much as a dribble.
That was likely not an accident.
On the season, Kuzma was shooting 34 percent on spot-up 3s, but just 15.1 percent on pull-ups.
“We want to minimize how much we’re shooting off the bounce. But punish when teams go under,” Vogel said. “We’ll take them however we can get them, as long as they’re open. And hopefully we see improved consistency on that front with Kyle.”
Rather than any changes to Kuzma’s mechanics, Vogel pointed to his repetition over the hiatus.
Kuzma certainly does not want to be typecast as a spot-up shooter, and the absences of Avery Bradley and Rajon Rondo could lead to more opportunities for him to operate out of the pick-and-roll.
“We just really have been on him,” Vogel said, “our whole group really, about reading defense and just making the right play. If that means you come off and you have nine, 10 assists and very limited shot attempts because that’s what the defense gives you, then that’s the right way to play.”
Vogel highlighted one recent practice where Kuzma made “four or five great passes in a row.” Rather than compliment him on his passing, Vogel said he told Kuzma, “Great job reading the defense.”
Those subtleties may be the key to answering the questions about Kuzma that have been bandied since his arrival as a late first-round pick in 2017.
“During the hiatus, pandemic, guys were not allowed to do anything but shoot the basketball,” Vogel said. “And you can (deduce) that all those one-on-zero shooting workouts and if he made a tweak or two here with his shot, like all shooters will do, could have benefited him.”
Kuzma was the Lakers’ leading scorer in an exhibition that saw James play in all four quarters after sitting out after halftime in the opener. James finished with 20 points in 25 minutes, while Kentavious Caldwell-Pope had 17. Dion Waiters added 12 points in his second appearance with the Lakers.
The Lakers will play one more scrimmage, Monday against Washington, before their slate of eight “seeding games” begins on Thursday against the Clippers.
Markieff Morris, who cleared quarantine this week after being away from the team with an excused absence, did not play against Orlando but is expected to be in the rotation on Monday.
The Lakers continued to further the message about social justice, led by Kuzma.
“This is one of the biggest times in our lifetime, especially for us,” Kuzma said. “Because if you think about it, the only two things that the country is really paying attention to are, really three things, are what the president says, COVID and the NBA bubble. … We have a huge impact and platform to really hold people accountable.”
He said that while, like his teammates, he wanted to see justice for Breonna Taylor, the Black hospital worker killed in March in Louisville, he is hoping for broader, systemic change.
“All the rules and regulations that we have in this world are really from past generations,” he said. “We can’t think like that as a society, or else we’re going to have the same result.”
These are, of course, things that have been said about Kuzma before.
At times, he looks like a star and, in other moments, an overeager shot taker.
After he shot an inefficient 4-for-13 in the first of three scrimmages on Thursday against Dallas, it was easy to think that Kuzma, despite the positive chatter out of Lakers camp, had not changed much at all. But then came Saturday against the Magic.
A day after his 25th birthday, Kuzma poured in a game-high 25 points on 10-of-13 shooting while knocking down five 3-pointers, the most in any of his games this season, in a 119-112 victory.
“What he did today,” Frank Vogel said, “he did all through our ‘restart training camp’ so to speak. I’m just really excited about what the restart is going to look like for him.”
And so the pendulum swings for Kuzma. No longer the youthful starter with a green light like he was in the days Luke Walton stalked the sideline, Kuzma has seen his minutes and scoring drop as the Lakers’ sixth man. Last season, he averaged 18.7 points in 33.1 minutes. This year: 12.5 points in 24.6 minutes.
But as Kuzma’s role on a deep and veteran team has necessarily diminished, it also has grown in importance.
Which is why a game like the one he turned in on Saturday is so intriguing.
It’s not like it was entirely out of nowhere. Kuzma has had big games this season. But his two best scoring efforts came when the Lakers were without one or both of their superstars. On Jan. 10, he scored 26 points with Anthony Davis out of the lineup. The next night he exploded for a season-high 35 against Oklahoma City when both LeBron James and Davis sat out.
And even though the Lakers lost Davis in the first quarter on Saturday after he was poked in the eye, the victory over Orlando reignited that spark of hope for what Kuzma can be.
Both he and Vogel said the performance could be traced back to nearly a year ago, when Kuzma suffered a foot injury while playing with Team USA. That knocked him out of Lakers training camp in September and kept him sidelined until the fifth game of the regular season.
“It’s tough to have your legs under you if you don’t have the training camp everybody else had,” Vogel said.
Because Kuzma was dealing with a lower-body injury, he was limited in what he could do.
“Especially lifting weights,” Kuzma said. “I couldn’t really bear any weights lower body-wise to get ready for the season.”
Suddenly, you start to see the value of an interrupted season and a second training camp for a player like Kuzma. In the nearly four months between the Lakers’ last practice on March 11 and their arrival in the Orlando bubble, there wasn’t much Kuzma could do other than lift weights and work on his shot.
“I just been in the league long enough to know what I need to fix,” Kuzma said, “and just a lot of self-reflection. Just little things that help my confidence.”
Prior to the shutdown, Kuzma’s 3-point percentage had dipped below 30 percent. But on Saturday, Kuzma checked in midway through the first quarter and promptly buried four 3s before the end of the period — each one without so much as a dribble.
That was likely not an accident.
On the season, Kuzma was shooting 34 percent on spot-up 3s, but just 15.1 percent on pull-ups.
“We want to minimize how much we’re shooting off the bounce. But punish when teams go under,” Vogel said. “We’ll take them however we can get them, as long as they’re open. And hopefully we see improved consistency on that front with Kyle.”
Rather than any changes to Kuzma’s mechanics, Vogel pointed to his repetition over the hiatus.
Kuzma certainly does not want to be typecast as a spot-up shooter, and the absences of Avery Bradley and Rajon Rondo could lead to more opportunities for him to operate out of the pick-and-roll.
“We just really have been on him,” Vogel said, “our whole group really, about reading defense and just making the right play. If that means you come off and you have nine, 10 assists and very limited shot attempts because that’s what the defense gives you, then that’s the right way to play.”
Vogel highlighted one recent practice where Kuzma made “four or five great passes in a row.” Rather than compliment him on his passing, Vogel said he told Kuzma, “Great job reading the defense.”
Those subtleties may be the key to answering the questions about Kuzma that have been bandied since his arrival as a late first-round pick in 2017.
“During the hiatus, pandemic, guys were not allowed to do anything but shoot the basketball,” Vogel said. “And you can (deduce) that all those one-on-zero shooting workouts and if he made a tweak or two here with his shot, like all shooters will do, could have benefited him.”
Kuzma was the Lakers’ leading scorer in an exhibition that saw James play in all four quarters after sitting out after halftime in the opener. James finished with 20 points in 25 minutes, while Kentavious Caldwell-Pope had 17. Dion Waiters added 12 points in his second appearance with the Lakers.
The Lakers will play one more scrimmage, Monday against Washington, before their slate of eight “seeding games” begins on Thursday against the Clippers.
Markieff Morris, who cleared quarantine this week after being away from the team with an excused absence, did not play against Orlando but is expected to be in the rotation on Monday.
The Lakers continued to further the message about social justice, led by Kuzma.
“This is one of the biggest times in our lifetime, especially for us,” Kuzma said. “Because if you think about it, the only two things that the country is really paying attention to are, really three things, are what the president says, COVID and the NBA bubble. … We have a huge impact and platform to really hold people accountable.”
He said that while, like his teammates, he wanted to see justice for Breonna Taylor, the Black hospital worker killed in March in Louisville, he is hoping for broader, systemic change.
“All the rules and regulations that we have in this world are really from past generations,” he said. “We can’t think like that as a society, or else we’re going to have the same result.”
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