Before a late January game in Chicago, Lakers rookie Kyle Kuzma did a brave thing. Despite the almost certain ridicule he knew he would face from teammates, Kuzma strolled into the United Center wearing a tan faux-fur coat, a white turtleneck and skinny jeans.

The expected onslaught ensued. First it was then-teammate Jordan Clarkson interrupting Kuzma's postgame interview to highlight the pink lining in his coat, saying it was "all for the ladies."

That was tame compared to the ribbing he received from fellow Lakers rookie Lonzo Ball via social media.

But Kuzma says the good-natured banter is par for the course in a league where what you wear to the game is almost as important as what you do on the court.

"We always have our fun, in our locker room," Kuzma told CBS Sports. "If somebody's wearing something that looks nice, we're gonna make sure they know about it. And if it's something that doesn't look very nice, not the swaggiest, then we're gonna let them know too. We just have fun with it and what not, take our jabs."

Kuzma can dish out the jabs too, as you can see at the end of the video above when he calls out Lonzo and Corey Brewer for not being able to dress.

Led by style mavens like Russell Westbrook, NBA players are now freer to express themselves through fashion than they've ever been. So, in addition to working on ball-handling, shooting and defense, rookies now have to school themselves in Prada, Gucci and Tom Ford before they get to the NBA.

"It's very important, especially in the basketball culture. We like our fashion," Kuzma said. "Coming into the NBA, you definitely have to step it up because you're competing on and off the floor. Not only on the court, basketball-wise, but a lot of us take pride in our style too."

In order to further express his style, Kuzma recently teamed up with Foot Locker, Nike and Jordan Brand to help launch the House of Hoops Instagram handle, which made its debut over All-Star Weekend. House of Hoops attempts to combine basketball, style and dance culture, and also features other NBA players like Devin Booker and Andre Drummond.

The game has changed. #HouseofHoops

A post shared by House of Hoops by Foot Locker (@houseofhoops) on

It's only appropriate that the 22-year-old Kuzma chose to represent an Instagram handle since, for people his age, a strong social media presence is basically essential.

"Social media's pretty huge. It's the biggest platform of really anything in our generation," Kuzma said. "People really don't watch TV no more -- it's all about social media. I think it's a great platform for showing off your brand, who you are, interacting with fans, interacting with people in general."

But along with social media comes the most obvious danger -- posting something inappropriate. You see it pretty much every day -- someone deleting a tweet or backtracking after a post is deemed to be offensive by a segment of society.

But Kuzma says he's not concerned with making an internet faux pas. In general he stays away from comments, unless it's from a friend or someone he follows. Then he's not afraid to let it rip. And to make sure he stays out of trouble, Kuzma employs a pretty simple rule of thumb.

"I really just trust my own judgment. I'm very cautious of how I'm presented and my type of reputation," Kuzma said. "I wouldn't necessarily put anything out there that I wouldn't say in person. So, I'm not really getting in trouble."

So that means this post, in which he glorifies the posterization of his former college teammate, Jakob Poeltl, is nothing that Kuzma wouldn't say to his old Utah buddy's face (pay special attention to the geolocation tag).

@jakob : “kuz don’t go in the paint tomorrow” Me: “😈” 😂😂😂

A post shared by Kyle Kuzma (@kuzmakyle) on

To that end, today's NBA players are using Instagram and social media to do their trash talking. You've seen it with Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid, whose tweets are almost as eagerly anticipated as his rainbow 3-pointers. But Kuzma's noticed an interesting dynamic. He says that the trash talk that happens on social media tends to stay on social media -- it mostly doesn't carry over to the games.

"A lot of times it stays on Instagram," Kuzma said. "There's not that many tough guys that really talk trash in the NBA. It's more so just talking trash so the public can see, really."

Retired players of a self-proclaimed tougher generation would scoff at the idea of trash talking through your computer or phone rather than on the court, but in a league where technicals and flagrant fouls are administered much more quickly, perhaps you can't blame this generation for getting their jabs in through social media.

For Kuzma, a chance to combine his love of social media, style and sneakers through House of Hoops was a no-brainer.

"I always was a big fan of sneakers -- going back to high school and college -- a big fan of Jordans and everything Nike brand, really. For me, sneakerheads, just the presence of sneakers, has always been something to me," Kuzma said. "I'm super excited. Growing up, I used to love going to Foot Lockers in malls and what not.

"To work with them, it's pretty special."