Kyle Kuzma, the 27th pick of the draft, is now outscoring all of his draftmates except for Donovan Mitchell, who doesn’t count anyway because he scored 40 once. The hype for Kuzma was pretty intense after Summer League, and I’m sure I was not alone in thinking that he was just another older rookie dominating the dismal Las Vegas competition, and that he would struggle mightily against NBA teams, some of whom have players who only play defense.
Turns out, sometimes people who dominate Summer League are actually capable NBAers. It doesn’t happen often (RIP Josh Selby you were a beast), but it happens. Like right now, with Kuzma. He’s only had a handful of bad games and we’re already a third of the way through the season.
Tonight, he dropped, as the video title suggests, 38 points on the unsuspecting Rockets. He didn’t hit any skyhooks, which was a disappointment, but he did hit 7 threes and racked up some other miscellaneous buckets to bring him close to the magical four-oh. After his blazing hot first half, I thought 40 was a near certainty, but players never seem to be able to keep up the pace. Ever. If I had a dollar for every time I got overhyped after a strong first half, only to be disappointed, I’d have, like, 23 dollars or so.