In the halcyon pre-pandemic days when we had idle debates at bars, a friend and I wondered whether it is possible to rationally discuss the movie Fight Club. Even as boosters lament how criminally underrated it is, critics dismiss it as an overrated bro fantasy. There doesn’t seem to be a reasonable baseline.
That often seems to be the case with role players on the Los Angeles Lakers (or at least the Lebron James iteration of it.) Depending on one’s perspective, players like Alex Caruso and Kyle Kuzma are either beneficiaries of the Lakers nation hype train, or not given their due as critical cogs on the defending champs.
In Kuzma’s case at least, it feels like the discourse has erred too far towards the former. Less heralded than his teammates from the Anthony Davis trade, Kuzma has found an important niche on the Lakers. His offensive rebounding this season has added an especially valuable dimension to the Lakers.
The Lakers grab 25.5% of their own misses, squarely in the middle of the league per Cleaning the Glass. However, they manage to turn those offensive rebounds into a healthy number of second chance points, where they rank eighth in the league. And boy do the Lakers need those points; the Lakers generate under 96 points per 100 possessions on half court plays, worse than 17 other teams in the league per CTG. They grind out 121 points per 100 on putbacks though, fourth best in the league.
Kuzma is a big driver of those putback points. Kuzma and Jimmy Butler are the only non-centers to average 2 or more offensive rebounds per game. For Kuzma, that’s double what he averaged the previous season. Like many of the best offensive rebounders, Kuzma capitalizes when he catches his man napping.
With Gary Trent Jr. fixated on Alex Caruso in the corner, Kuzma uses the long runway to leap over a strong rebounder in Enes Kanter.
When his teammates barrel to the rim, Kuzma uses the momentary lapse from distracted defenders to build up a head of steam. Critically, he synchronizes his run with the drive, ensuring that he arrives at the rim at the right moment.
By starting to run at the same time as Dennis Schroeder gathers to begin his drive, Kuzma arrives just as the ball is coming off the rim, giving him a crucial head start on the nearest defender.
Kuzma is predatory in hunting out those boards; he tracks his man in lock step on rotations, putting paid to any hopes the defense may have for an uncontested rebound.
Even when the defense has Kuzma in its peripherals, Kuzma jukes around them like a running back to get into strategic position. Watch him run around Collin Sexton and “best rebounder in the universe” Andre Drummond before coming away with the ball.
Per Cleaning the Glass, Kuzma rebounds 7.5% of the Lakers’ missed shots, in the 99th percentile of all forwards. He is adept at recognizing where misses might go, even accounting for some of the inherent randomness in those outcomes. A personal favorite is when Kuzma uses his ability to get offensive boards to get closer to the basket. After the defense forces Kuzma to toss up a floater here, Kuzma uses his momentum to get the board and turn it into a closer look and ultimately draw the foul:
We often talk about athleticism in general terms, even though it can take various forms from lateral athleticism to a devastating “last step”. In Kuzma’s case, he possesses a quick second jump, allowing him to grab a board and go up for the putback in rapid succession.
There is a subtle precision to Kuzma’s timing; as noted on the Schroeder drive above, Kuzma times his runs from the perimeter. He is also adept at timing his jumps when jostling under the rim, allowing him to avoid over-the-back calls even when a defender has better position.
His timing means that Kuzma get his mitts on the ball at the apex of his jump. In addition to maximizing his chance of getting a tip in, Kuzma can appear like Wilt Chamberlain towering above a scrum of defenders!
A focus on offensive rebounding can leave teams open to giving up points in transition. Lollygag under the opposing basket for too long and you risk giving up points on the other end. The Lakers seem to be walking that fine line with alacrity. Teams score just 117 points per 100 transition plays against the Lakers, good for fourth in the league and nearly nine points below league average per Cleaning the Glass. That number is a lot better with Kuzma on the floor vs. off it, albeit driven mostly by their defense off Lakers turnovers. What does seem certain is that Kuzma’s commitment to the offensive glass isn’t hurting the Lakers at the other end.
Some of that is by design. When the defense is firmly entrenched below the basket, Kuzma plots his run back on defense by way of the free throw line.
He is especially likely to do so off three pointers, recognizing the greater likelihood of those misses bouncing farther out.
That sort of recognition positions Kuzma to grab the low hanging fruit of offensive rebounds, without putting himself out of defensive position in a quest for more marginal opportunities. It’s found money.
The Lakers rebound nearly 29% of their own misses when Kuzma is on the floor with neither Lebron James nor Anthony Davis, better than all but the league-leading New Orleans Pelicans. Not surprisingly, those lineups have a hard time scoring, a putrid 104.5 points per 100 possessions. That they can even generate those many points is because they pound the glass and generate nearly 20 points per miss, in the 85th percentile of all lineups league-wide per CTG. With both Lebron James and Anthony Davis out for the forseeable future, they are going to need that and a whole lot more from Kuzma and the rest of the squad.