The Los Angeles Lakers are in a really hot position at the moment as the team could potentially change how it looks this summer thanks to their salary cap.
The Lakers currently have enough salary cap space to hand out two supermax contracts to free agents if they wanted to, and many believe they will do just that and target two of either LeBron James, Paul George, and Kawhi Leonard.
Of course, James and George would have to opt out of their current deals with the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Oklahoma City Thunder respectively to move to Los Angeles, and the Lakers would have to make a good offer to the San Antonio Spurs to acquire Leonard.
Dinner with Kobe
In the meantime, the Lakers are looking to build their own current squad up to great standards. They moved forward towards this goal sometime in early November when rookie Kyle Kuzma grabbed dinner at a steakhouse in West Hollywood with Lakers legend Kobe Bryant.
Kuzma asked Bryant that night about balancing cravings of significance with overconfidence, seeming as the Black Mamba was always a confident player with the ball in his hands during his playing career.
The Lakers legend would answer by telling the rookie disregard all the predictable praise people would lavish on him during his bandwagon-building rookie season.
Kuzma said, according to the Lakers official website: “When he was a young player, everybody would in a sense toot his horn or kiss his ass.
"His way of not getting overhyped confidence-wise, even though he was still very confident, was to say, ‘OK, (forget) this guy. He might tell me something great, but he don’t mean that.’
“That really helped me stay level-headed. That was one thing that continues with me to this day, and I’ll probably never forget that.”
It worked out well for Kuzma, as he finished averaging 16.1 points, 6.3 rebounds, and 1.8 assists per game, as well as an All-Rookie First Team selection.
It was a very promising rookie season for Kuzma, one which he will look to build upon next season with possibly either LeBron, George, and/or Kawhi as his teammates if things go well for the Lakers in free agency.
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