The NBA trade deadline has come and gone with the Los Angeles Lakers opting to make just one move by acquiring Luke Kennard. The Lakers had a lot of needed to address, with one of them being 3-point shooting, and Kennard is one of the best in that regard.
Kennard led the league in 3-point shooting in the first half of the season with the Atlanta Hawks, shooting 49.7% from deep, albeit on low volume at 3.2 attempts per game.
Playing alongside Luka Doncic and LeBron James should lead to more open looks and hopefully make those attempts rise, which JJ Redick will encourage.
A fun fact of Kennard’s is that he broke James’ high school scoring record in the state of Ohio, which could make for a nice icebreaker between the two, as he talked about in an interview with ESPN Los Angeles:
“Yeah, obviously that was a great moment. A big-time accomplishment when I was in high school, and I’m heard about it every now and then and just kind of full-circle now being able to play with him and getting to know him a little bit more. I might mention it, but we’ll see.”
James is well-aware that Kennard broke his record as he brought it up a few years ago after a matchup between the two:
“Luke Kennard who broke my scoring record in high school — he’s a laser from the 3PT line”
LeBron on Luke Kennard pic.twitter.com/ceGtDlGBzp
— 𝐏𝐮𝐫𝐩𝑮𝒐𝒍𝒅 🏆 (@PurpGolded) February 5, 2026
After Kennard’s Lakers debut, James brought up the record and how they need to have a conversation about it.
“First of all, I haven’t even gotten to the point where I even confronted him about breaking my scoring record in Ohio, when he passed me. But he did play for my AAU team, so we kinda even,” James joked.
The Lakers have been one of the worst 3-point shooting teams in the league this season and the hope is that bringing in Kennard will address that.
While it is unfair to place that responsibility on one player, he should add a bit more diversity to the Lakers’ offense. Looking at the former Duke Blue Devil’s stats in January, he shot 61.7% from distance on 3.4 attempts and having him on the floor next to all or some combination of James, Doncic and Austin Reaves can help space the floor even more.
Although the new Laker may not be putting up massive scoring nights like he did in high school, his ability to space should be worth something, as one could argue L.A. has not had a shooter of his caliber in a while.
Luke Kennard excited to join Lakers
Although there was an anticipation for the Lakers to do more at the trade deadline, the addition of Kennard should help and he expressed his excitement to join the team and return to Los Angeles, where he played with the Clippers from 2020-23.
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