Lakers News: John Wall Scouts Possible Los Angeles Trade Candidate

Basically as soon as he was traded, former 2020 Los Angeles Lakers champ Kyle Kuzma has long been the one that got away for LA. 

One wonders how well this team would have performed these last two seasons had Los Angeles not opted to overreact to an injury-plagued 2020-21 season in flipping Kuzma, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Montrezl Harrell and a first-round draft pick to the Washington Wizards for Russell Westbrook two fateful summers ago.

So it's really no surprise that Kuzma and very reasonable contract have been a trade target for the Lakers this year.

Brandon "Scoop B" Robinson of Bally Sports recently sat down with a former Wizards All-Star, current LA Clippers point guard John Wall, in a wide-ranging conversation. When asked about Kuzma's performance this season, Wall supplied a rave review.

"Oh man!" Wall exclaimed. "He’s always been a talent, and he’s always been special and a gifted guy. I think that he’s finally blossomed into finding his role and his niche that he wanted to find. I mean, I can remember for me trying to find your role, trying to make a statement to be known in this league as a basketball player, and he’s one of those talented guys. Our first game in D.C., he couldn't miss in the first half, so now we tried to lock in him so he couldn’t get a rhythm and they played great team basketball. But I like the way he plays, for sure."

This season, the 6'9" forward has been averaging a career-most 22.2 points on .460/.340/.702 shooting splits for the Wizards, plus 7.6 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game.