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

[mvossman]

Maybe some of you need to realize how small Dallas is, to understand what kind of defensive impact Kuzma would have. He's far from a perfect player, but he's 6' 10" and a strong defensive rebounder. Length matters. And he's scoring 22 ppg as his team's no 1 option. Think about that. His doesn't score very efficiently, but he's also the focal point of the opposing team's defense and he's scoring better than any season in THJ's career. THJ is a 6' 5" guard. Exum is bigger than THJ. Kuzma is a 6' 10" forward.

Someone above mentioned MPJ and that sounds about right. Plus, Kuz' efficiency will go up just like everyone's does next to Luka.

Would I rather deal an expiring contract, prospect, and late 1st for Aaron Gordon? Absolutely, but he's not on the market.

This is a fine argument for replacing Timmy with Kuz as 6th man (our second unit is our biggest issue from a size standpoint), but you don't pay a first round pick and 90 mil for a 6th man upgrade.  In the starting lineup next to Luka and Kyrie what we most need is defense.  Not a chucker who might be a little more efficient next to those guys.  If I thought Kuz could play consistent high level defense as a starter I would be much more on board with this.  But the argument that he played some good defense years ago from the bench in a couple of playoff series sounds way too much like the arguments for GWill (who was much more known for defense).