When the trade deadline came and went, the Los Angeles Lakers’ lone move was acquiring Luke Kennard. While Kennard is an upgrade from Gabe Vincent, there were lofty expectations to bring in more 3-and-D personnel to vault L.A. into contender status.
However, general manager Rob Pelinka shared that although he was aggressive in his pursuit of win-now deals, he opted to stay disciplined to keep future flexibility. It is worth mentioning that the former Atlanta Hawk is on an expiring deal, so his long-term future with L.A. remains uncertain, but Kennard’s play has been impressive since joined the team.
Head coach JJ Redick notices what the newest Laker adds with his 3-point shooting, along with creating a blender for their offense where the defense has to scramble to close out to Kennard and he makes read off of an opponent in a vulnerable state.
“Boy, like, Luke Kennard just, he just starts the blender for us,” Redick said following a blowout win against the Golden State Warriors. “We frankly have not had a ton of blender starters. Obviously, like Luka (Dončić) gets two on the ball, AR (Austin Reaves) will get two on the ball, LeBron (James) will get two on the ball but just to be able to create a closeout and then make the right read and right play from there. I thought our guys were incredibly unselfish tonight. It started with that starting group and then I thought Luke was huge for our offense tonight.”
Bench production, frankly, has not been an area of strength for the Lakers as they currently rank 29th out of 30 teams. So, having Kennard produce as a reserve opens up a lot and Redick applauds his mentality when he is on the floor.
“He’s got a really good ‘we score’ mentality,” Redick said. “A play can be for him, but he’s gonna hunt out the best shot and play for the team, and all of the guys benefit from that when the ball moves. I mean, look, I called an ATO for him in the second half. He scores on it. Could’ve shot it off the initial screen, created the blender, eventually got it back and hits a step-back 3. We run it again, and this is where he’s such a cerebral player. Pat Spencer tries to top block him, and he screens his own into Jake’s guy and Smart hits Jake for a layup. That’s just connective offense right there and that’s what Luke does.”
At this point, it feels like a no-brainer to keep Kennard around if the money makes sense. Having a shooting specialist next to Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves and LeBron James is much-needed, along with the former Blue Devil’s ability to do a little more than shoot 3-pointers.
Luka Doncic has high confidence in Luke Kennard
Luka Doncic is a wizard with his passes as he can make any pass to an open teammate. When Luke Kennard was brought in, it felt like a seamless fit given his ability to space the floor.
Despite Doncic only playing a handful of games with his newest teammate, he already has high confidence in him.
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