Kyle Kuzma concluded an excellent rookie year for any player, let alone the No. 27 pick, with averages of 16.1 points on 45.0 percent FG’s and 36.6 percent 3’s, plus 6.3 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 0.6 steals in 31.2 minutes per game.
Only Julius Randle (82) appeared in more than Kuzma’s 77 games, of which he started 37. In those starts, Kuzma averaged 18.8 points with 7.2 rebounds. He was healthy for most of the season, though the Flint, Michigan native battled two separate ankle sprains in the final two months of the season.
Below is a summary of his exit interview:
Below is a summary of his exit interview:
Did Kuzma exceed even his own expectations for his rookie year? Yes. “Exceeded … I wanted to prove that I belong at this level. Over the course of the season I think I did that.”
Kuzma was very optimistic about where this young core can get together, mentioning “B.I., Zo, J-Hart and me” as a group that has a bright future. In fact…
Kuzma felt like the young guys showed how much promise they have moving forward to anybody that might want to join the team, to the point where he’s not counting on it. “If guys want to come here, they come, but if not, we’re not depending on that. We want to be those great players, max level guys. We just think about how can we make the team better.”
On the message from Magic, Pelinka and Walton: “They don’t want me to be average, they want me to be a great player, as I want to be. The message was work as hard as possible.”
Kuz on his close relationship with Lonzo: “It’s great to have other people that are rookies going through the same things you’re going through. It’s one thing to talk as a vet, but (another) to talk to someone having the same struggles you are.”
Early this season, Kuzma was scoring the basketball really well, but the coaching staff made it very clear that they wanted Kuzma to continue to work on all the other aspects of his game as well, and not just score. Young guys can sometimes be seduced by that scoring, especially with early success, but the coaches were very pleased that Kuzma was open to their message, and listened to it, and continued to try to improve at defense and other areas of the game. His reaction: “I’ve never really been a numbers guy … I like to score, for sure … but my main thing is I want to win. I want to be a complete player. All the top guys are complete players, and if I’m not, I won’t be there.”