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Kragthorpe: Ex-Ute Kyle Kuzma is an NBA phenomenon. Did anyone in Utah see this coming?

‘Kuzmania’ may be fading in L.A., but he’s a star as a Lakers rookie

Los Angeles Lakers forward Kyle Kuzma (0) shoots over Houston Rockets center Nene (42) in the first half of an NBA basketball game Sunday, Dec. 31, 2017, in Houston. (AP Photo/Michael Wyke)

Now that Kyle Kuzma is thriving in the NBA, I’m happy to say I endorsed his choice to leave the University of Utah with a year’s eligibility remaining. In May, I said it would be fun to watch him play professionally when his team visited the Salt Lake Valley.

Yeah. I wrote about looking forward to seeing him in the NBA G League, performing at Salt Lake Community College.

Kuzma’s emergence as the Los Angeles Lakers’ leading scorer, with a persona that makes him “a little rock star in L.A.,“ in the words of Ute coach Larry Krystkowiak, is the most remarkable story of any former Utah college athlete as a pro basketball rookie. Weber State alumnus Damian Lillard became the NBA’s unanimous Rookie of the Year in 2013, but he was the No. 6 pick by Portland in the draft.

Only the rookie season of ex-Ute running back Mike Anderson, who rushed for 1,487 yards as Denver’s sixth-round choice in 2000, tops the unlikely rise of Kuzma, who is averaging 17.2 points as the No. 27 pick and in November was named the NBA Western Conference Rookie of the Month.

Kuzma and his team are slumping lately; his 2-of-14 shooting night against Charlotte came in a ninth straight defeat Friday. The Lakers’ downturn is slowing the momentum of “Kuzmania,” a phenomenon that has been explainable, on some levels. His size and skills are suited to the modern NBA, he’s benefitting in multiple ways from joining a team that drafted point guard Lonzo Ball at No. 2 and he’s playing for a franchise that’s totally geared to the future.

“I’m not overly shocked,” Krystkowiak said.

Krystkowiak and his staff deserve credit for recruiting and developing a first-round draft choice in each of the past three years, although maybe they could have done more with teams featuring Delon Wright, Jakob Poeltl and Kuzma. He’s able to joke about it, but Krystkowiak knows critics are applying the old line about Dean Smith being the only person who could hold down Michael Jordan to him and Kuzma. Krystkowiak is not trying to revise history by saying he encouraged Kuzma to enter the NBA as a junior. He knows Kuzma was driven to get there as soon as possible, though.

“He was talking about the NBA the first day he showed up here,” Krystkowiak said. “He had his heart set on it, and now it’s pretty cool to watching the whole thing come together.”

In a lengthy profile by The Ringer, Kuzma credited Utah’s coaching staff for developing him, as his annual scoring averages went from 3.3 to 10.8 to 16.4 points. “When coaches are on you, that means they care about you,” Kuzma said. “For me, my coach was on me 24/7. That’s a good thing. I know how to take criticism. I know how to put that criticism in a positive light. It means a lot to me. I may not be the best player in the NBA right now, I may not be the most skilled, but I want to be one of the top workers in the league.”

Those comments evoke a story from the Pac-12 tournament in Kuzma’s sophomore year, after he scored 23 points in a quarterfinal win over USC. In the postgame news conference, when I asked Kuzma what triggered his breakout game, Krystkowiak interjected, “Tell ‘em about our meeting.” Kuzma acknowledged being “nonchalant, casual” in recent games, as his coach had made clear.

The Lakers discovered him in last March’s Pac-12 tournament, by The Ringer’s account, with Kuzma scoring 23 points in a quarterfinal loss to California. The scout: Bill Bertka, a long-ago Jazz assistant coach, who’s now 90.

Kuzma went 3 of 5 from 3-point range that day, part of a late surge that raised his average to 32 percent as a junior. In the NBA, he’s shooting 38.4 percent on 3-pointers — even after Friday’s 0-for-6 effort.

“He’s a cerebral kid, a confident kid, and I truly believe that from a physics point of view, if you look at some arcs and trajectories and different things, that the college 3 was too short for him,” Krystkowiak said.

What’s certain is that wider spacing in the NBA gives the 6-foot-9 Kuzma more openings to shoot and drive. His versatility and athletic ability make him “a prototypical NBA guy right now,” Krystkowiak said, as the league moves away from traditional positions on the court.

Krystkowiak took his family to a Lakers game in Los Angeles, right after Kuzma had scored 38 points Dec. 20 at Houston in the team’s most recent win. Kuzmania has faded since then. Coach Luke Walton’s moving him back to the bench Friday and the Lakers’ owning the NBA’s second-worst record (11-27) are signs of reality for the rookie, although he’ll never lose belief in himself.

When everybody else was surprised about him, Kuzma was saying, “I expect to do this.”

Rookie sensations<br>Here’s how former Utah star Kyle Kuzma’s NBA rookie season compares to those of current Jazz player Donovan Mitchell and Weber State alumnus Damian Lillard:<br>Kuzma – 37 games, 31.8 minutes, 17.2 points, 6.3 rebounds, 46.3-percent shooting, 38.4-percent 3-point shooting.<br>Mitchell – 37 games, 31.1 minutes, 18.2 points, 3.4 assists, 43.8-percent shooting, 35.7-percent 3-point shooting.<br>Lillard (2012-13) – 82 games, 38.6 minutes, 19.0 points, 6.5 assists, 42.9-percent shooting, 36.8-percent 3-point shooting.