The Los Angeles Lakers may have been linked to several players at the trade deadline, but they wound up making one marginal move. The Lakers traded away Gabe Vincent and their 2032 second-round pick to the Atlanta Hawks in exchange for Luke Kennard.
Los Angeles had a few needs to address, and outside shooting was one of them as the team ranks toward the bottom of 3-point percentage. Kennard is an elite 3-point shooter as he’s shooting 49.7 percent from deep on 3.2 attempts, so he should be able to grease the offense.
Opposing defenses are happy to crash the paint to prevent the Lakers’ three stars from doing damage at the rim. This generally opens up plenty of quality looks from beyond the arc, so Kennard is in prime position to help space the floor and keep defenses honest.
Following the win against the Philadelphia 76ers, head coach JJ Redick had high praise for Kennard and emphasized he’ll want him to shoot even more on his new team.
“Excited about Luke,” Redick said. “I’ve known him, I guess for about 12 years now and I think he’s one of the best shooters in the NBA. I’m gonna highly encourage him to shoot more and not turn down shots. Because I think one of the underrated part of his game is his ability to move and create second actions and move the basketball. You’ve seen that now at a number of his stops where you can initiate the offense through an off-ball movement and he will just make the right play and sort of get the offense going. So he’ll be a corner threat and he’ll be an off-ball threat and we’re excited to have him.”
As a former sharpshooter himself, Redick is an ideal coach for someone like Kennard as he’ll be able to open up the playbook more. Kennard is great shooting the basketball in catch-and-shoot situations, but is also an excellent movement shooter that can come off screens and get a defense scrambling to close out.
Defensively, Kennard is extremely limited and will struggle most nights to stay in front of his man so Redick will need to be creative when it comes to hiding him. However, his defensive struggles are still worth the price of what he can bring offensively.
It remains to be seen when Kennard will make his purple and gold debut, but he’ll have a decent role off the bat now that Vincent is gone. Kennard might not be the needle-mover that Lakers fans wanted at the trade deadline, but he’ll certainly help the rest of the way.
Lakers will get their shot to trade for Giannis Antetokounmpo
The Lakers had a quieter trade deadline as all reports indicate that they’re saving cap space. The Giannis Antetokounmpo sweepstakes will be on as soon as the season is over and Los Angeles will have their shot to trade for him when the summer rolls around.
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