Getty Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James.
After a concerning 0-5 start to the season, the Los Angeles Lakers have their first winning streak of the year. The team has won back-to-back games over the Denver Nuggets and New Orleans Hornets. It’s been a promising stretch for the team since they started having Russell Westbrook come off the bench and it’ll be fascinating to see if this is a sustainable strategy that leads to more wins.
Even if the Lakers are able to turn things around and go on a playoff run this year, the Westbrook trade from last year was still a massive miscalculation. The team gave up Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Kyle Kuzma in the deal. Both players would be really helpful on the Lakers right now. Kuzma was once one of the team’s most promising young players before becoming the most popular player included in trade rumors.
He had a strong season in his first year with the Washington Wizards where he averaged 17.1 points a game. Getting a fresh start away from Los Angeles was likely best for Kuzma but most Lakers fans wouldn’t mind him back on the team. It appears that LeBron James feels the same way. He responded to a tweet from Kuzma about people not appreciating others while they’re here and LeBron added that he misses the forward.
@kylekuzma Unfortunately they won’t my brother! You know how it goes. 🤦🏾♂️. Miss you bro!
Fans Speculate About a Kuzma Return
The Wizards decided to give Bradley Beal a huge extension in the offseason. As long as he’s on the team, they need to commit to trying to win. However, if the season goes off the rails, Washington may have to reconsider trading the star guard. If that happens, they’ll go into full rebuild mode. That could possibly open the door for a Kuzma return.
Some fans saw LeBron’s tweet and started revving up the Kuzma to Lakers rumor mill.
@KingJames @kylekuzma Kuzma return to the lakers? 👀
One fan even pitched a Patrick Beverley for Kuzma trade, which would work from a salary standpoint.
@KingJames @kylekuzma Miss you? We got ways of making this work again bro. Get it done
That could possibly be appealing to Washington considering Kuzma has a player option this offseason while Beverley will be off the books. It’s unlikely that anything will happen but it could be something to watch if the Wizards decide to be sellers.
LeBron off to a Slow Start This Season
LeBron is arguably the greatest basketball player ever and what he’s done at his age is unprecedented. However, there have been signs as of late that may show Father Time finally starting to catch up with the superstar. He’s still averaging 25.0 points a game but he’s only hitting 43.9 of his field goal attempts and just 22.6% of his 3-point attempts.
He didn’t have a great game against the Pelicans on Wednesday having only scored 20 points and hit nine of 23 shots. That could’ve had to do with him feeling under the weather. He revealed that he’s been bedridden for most of the week with a non-COVID-related illness.
“Today was the first day I got out of bed since Sunday night,” LeBron said following the win over the Pelicans, via Sports Illustrated. “It hurt me to my soul to miss out on the Halloween party with all my guys on Monday … Tom Brady’s been on the injury report for like 20 straight years. Somehow he just plays.”