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Kyle Kuzma became a fan-favorite with the Los Angeles Lakers during his rookie season not just for how good he was on the court, but also for how polished and composed his play looked during his debut campaign.
Kuzma exceeded nearly all preseason expectations by tying for the team lead in scoring with 16.1 points per game and plenty of clutch heroics, and a player doesn’t gain those skills without putting in plenty of work during the offseason.
That’s why it’s not surprise that according to Kuzma’s trainer Clint Parks, the young forward already wants to get back in the gym and start the process of taking his game to the next level for his sophomore season:
Got a text from y’all favorite Laker this morning back to work this week.#CPSA
— Clint Parks (@Brotherhood05) May 6, 2018
Kuzma continues a recent NBA trend of trainers or players leaking these exchanges, as Victor Oladipo’s trainer revealed that the young guard had told him he was ready to get back to work minutes after the Indiana Pacers were eliminated from the playoffs, while Dirk Nowitzki had some fun with a leaked exchange of his own.
Kuzma’s message to his trainer seems a bit more serious than the latter and more in line with Oladipo’s, and with the entire summer to work on refining his game, it’s not out of the question to picture Kuzma coming back and catching the league off-guard again with a few new tricks up his sleeve like he did as a rookie.
Sophomore seasons are notoriously difficult because of the entire league now understanding what a young player can bring on the court and is focused on taking it away, but Kuzma already showed that he could adjust to that kind of increased defensive respect while breaking out of a midyear rookie slump and finishing the season on an absolute tear before getting injured.
He and Parks’ work from last summer deserves a lot of credit for that level of polish and composure, and it will be fascinating to see how the two hone Kuzma’s game this summer and send him back as an even more skilled scorer and all-around player for his second season.
All stats per NBA.com and Basketball-Reference.com. You can follow Harrison on Twitter at @hmfaigen, or support his work via Venmo here or Patreon here.