Former Ute Kyle Kuzma makes a splash in Summer League, wins championship game MVP

When does your 31-point Summer League game get overlooked? When you're teammates with Lonzo Ball, whose gravity on the media is reaching cosmic levels.

But on Monday night, Kyle Kuzma had the stage all to himself in a 30-point, 10-rebound performance with the No. 2 overall pick sitting on the bench. For his efforts, the Los Angeles Lakers Summer League squad earned a 110-98 win over the Portland Trail Blazers in the championship game in Las Vegas, and Kuzma earned game MVP honors.

Not bad for a kid from Flint, Mich.

"I didn't know I was that aggressive," Kuzma said after his game. "I wasn't like that in college. Definitely not that aggressive. When I'm locked in and focused, I can do pretty much anything I want."

Kuzma has seen his stock dramatically rise since declaring for the NBA Draft back in March. From a fringe second-round prospect, Kuzma helped himself with a strong showing at the NBA Combine and then team workouts that convinced Magic Johnson and the Lakers' brass to take him No. 27 overall.

His Vegas experience has seen him emerging from the massive shadow of Ball: In seven games, he averaged 21.9 ppg and 6.4 rpg while shooting better than 51 percent from the field (and extremely well from 3-point range, given his college career 30.2 percent mark from deep). Even before he starred in the Summer League finale, he made the Vegas second-team.

While his early performances have helped validate his decision to go pro — a decision that some Utah fans disagreed with — Kuzma told the media in Las Vegas that he understands there's a long way to go.

"You're going to have people that are high on you one day and low on you the next," Kuzma said. "For me, it's just to stay levelheaded and stay working."

Somewhere, Larry Krystkowiak is reading that quote and smiling.

kgoon@sltrib.com
Twitter: @kylegoon