one of the most storied players<\/a> in Bucks franchise history, Kuzma made it clear there has been little discussion with Bucks coach Doc Rivers about filling Middleton\u2019s role off the bench this season or filling Middleton\u2019s role as a starter last season.<\/p>\n\u201cWe haven\u2019t talked about nothing, no role, anything,\u201d Kuzma said. \u201cIt really doesn\u2019t matter to me. I know I\u2019m going to be on the court, I know I\u2019m going to play, I know I\u2019m going to impact this team, and the vibes are high. It\u2019s really just about being excited being here. So, we\u2019ll get to that (starter vs. bench player conversation) eventually.\u201d<\/p>\n
It will be interesting to see how Rivers incorporates Kuzma with the Bucks. Aside from his final season in Los Angeles when it was a near 50-50 split between small forward and power forward, positional estimates from Cleaning the Glass show Kuzma playing power forward predominantly throughout his career. In seven of his eight seasons, Kuzma has spent at least 75 percent of his minutes at power forward.<\/p>\n
That will be difficult in Milwaukee. While Antetokounmpo is one of the league\u2019s \u201cpositionless\u201d wonders, it is difficult to consider him anything other than a power forward. He has played that position almost exclusively during the last two seasons under Rivers. With his traditional position already taken by Antetokounmpo, Kuzma may need to shift to small forward alongside Antetokounmpo and center Brook Lopez.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, both, I\u2019m a basketball player,\u201d Kuzma said when asked if he saw himself as more of a three (small forward) or four (power forward) positionally. \u201cI can play every position. It doesn\u2019t really matter to me. I think there\u2019s going to be pros to both lineups.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I\u2019m playing the three, then good luck with Giannis and Brook at the rim. And if I\u2019m playing the four and Giannis is playing the five, now we are much, much faster, and that poses a different threat that this team necessarily hasn\u2019t had this year and it should help things out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune
Utah Utes forward Kyle Kuzma (35) dunks the ball as Utah hosts Northwest Nazarene, NCAA basketball at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City, Saturday November 12, 2016.<\/p>\n
In Milwaukee, Kuzma won\u2019t only play a different position; he\u2019ll also fill a different offensive role, playing off Antetokounmpo and Lillard as the Bucks\u2019 third scorer. For his career, Kuzma is only a 33.4 percent 3-point shooter, which is not ideal considering the attention the league\u2019s top scoring duo can draw for themselves and the open shots they regularly create for teammates. But when asked about that 3-point percentage, Kuzma told reporters he didn\u2019t feel it accurately captured his ability.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, I wouldn\u2019t put too much stock into percentages with me,\u201d Kuzma said. \u201cI think that my whole career I\u2019ve never been guarded like a 33 percent shooter \u2018cause if I get hot, it might be a long night.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I think that teams have always kind of guarded me as if (I\u2019m) very capable, and that\u2019s all you really kind of need on the court. It\u2019s the gravity. Are the defenses scared that you can score? I think that when you have more and more of those on the court, then your offense is going to be better. I think just for me the game is simplified \u2014 less is more. I\u2019m able to catch-and-shoot a lot more, get wide open looks, which I necessarily haven\u2019t had.\u201d<\/p>\n
No matter what Kuzma\u2019s role ends up being, the eight-year NBA veteran made it clear he is excited to put trade talk behind him and get back to basketball, especially considering he is again in a position at a chance to make a deep postseason run as he did in 2020 with the Lakers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I heard the news, I was super ecstatic to be here,\u201d Kuzma said. \u201cI wanted to be here just because I knew this was a place where to potentially compete for a championship and play just high-level winning basketball again. And that was the most important thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Note to readers \u2022 This story is available to Salt Lake Tribune subscribers only. Thank you for supporting local journalism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Atlanta \u2022 Newly acquired Milwaukee Bucks forward Kyle Kuzma was one of the last players to walk out…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":200483,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3780],"tags":[7,16050,2561,6,446,1979,16051,66,682,468,3892,683],"class_list":{"0":"post-200482","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-washington-wizards","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-mens-sports","10":"tag-mens-basketball","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-nba-basketball","13":"tag-professional-basketball","14":"tag-restart","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-washington","17":"tag-washington-wizards","18":"tag-washingtonwizards","19":"tag-wizards"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114934528324460621","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200482\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}