Lakers News: LA Misses Out On Re-Signing Former Champion Forward

Your Los Angeles Lakers appear more likely than ever to retain incumbent restricted free agent power forward Rui Hachimura, now that a certain former 2020 Laker is off the board.

Hachimura's former Washington Wizards teammate, unrestricted free agent forward Kyle Kuzma, is now off the board. He has cashed in mightily on a career year in 2022-23, inking a four-year, $102 million contract to remain with the rebuilding Wiz long-term, CAA agent Austin Brown informs Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.

The 6'9" two-way combo forward, who spent his first four seasons in the league with the Lakers (and won a title on the 2019-20 championship team as a reserve), averaged a career-best 21.2 points on .448/.333/.730 shooting splits, plus 7.2 rebounds, 3.7 assists, 0.6 steals, and 0.5 blocks across just 64 games on a 35-47 12th seed. 

On a team that's actually trying to win (this Wizards team, having cleared the deck of Kuzma's pricey veteran co-stars Bradley Beal and Kristaps Porzingis for young pieces and future draft equity, doesn't seem focused on winning much in the immediate future), Kuzma's counting stats might be more in line with the 12.8 points, 5.3 rebounds, 1.6 assists, 0.5 steals and 0.5 blocks he averaged during his final two seasons on two stacked Los Angeles teams, from 2019-21.

Farewell for now, Kuz. Until we meet again.

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