Trade & FA 2023-24: Stein-Ingram Trade Inevitable| LAL Want Lebron Back On Any Terms

[mvossman]

Kuzma can dribble better than most wings and bigs who are at least 6'9".
Kuzma averages 6 rebounds per game, better than Jerami Grant, DFS, Patrick Williams, Olynyk
Kuzma is a more dynamic scorer than THJ, Mavs wouldn't miss THJ's offense with Kuzma.

Let's break it down Kuzma allows the Mavs to have:

• A PF with size and rebounding.
  
• A THJ replacement who can pull-up from 3 the way THJ can, but in a bigger body and can guard bigger players THJ can't.
  
• 3 dynamic scorers who can score at 3 levels.
  
• 3 playmakers (4 if Exum is on the floor with them).
  
• Works well with any of Lively, Maxi, Powell, GW paired with him.
  

Kuzma is as bad (or worse) defensively as Timmy.
Kuzma takes same number of 3s as Timmy, but significantly worse percentage (and folks get annoyed with Timmy trigger)
Kuzma as a "playmaker" gets 4-5 assets per 36 but also 3 turnovers for a worse than 2 to 1 assist to turnover ratio.

The advanced stats say they are roughly same value on the court (they actually like Timmy a little better).  But because Kuzma puts up a bunch of counting stats on a crappy team, he is going to cost significantly more than Timmy.  It would be worth a discussion if it were an equal swap, but it wont be.