The Los Angeles Lakers didn’t do much at the trade deadline, but they did make one deal, acquiring Luke Kennard from the Atlanta Hawks for Gabe Vincent and a second-round draft pick.
Kennard will give the Lakers some much-needed outside shooting as he is a career 44.2% shooter from deep and is leading the league at 49.7% so far this season.
The 29-year-old arrived at the Lakers’ practice facility on Friday and in an interview with John Ireland and Steve Mason on ESPN Los Angeles, expressed his excitement to join the team:
“I was just so excited. Obviously to come back out here, be in L.A., play for the LakeShow, I mean, obviously it’s such a big stage and great opportunity to play with some of the best to ever do it. I’m just excited.”
Kennard spent three seasons with the L.A. Clippers from 2020-23, so this is a bit of a homecoming for him.
As far as when he will make his Lakers debut, Kennard is hoping it will be on Saturday night against the Golden State Warriors but still has some hurdles to cross to make it happen:
“Just NBA stuff, you gotta clear some physical stuff and hopefully that will be done by today. Hopefully. I’m not 100% sure so I can’t say, but I hope so. I’m ready.”
With Luka Doncic expected to miss Saturday’s game, it would be nice to have Kennard available to get his feet wet in the purple and gold and give the Lakers a much-needed scoring punch. If it does not come against the Warriors though then Kennard would likely debut on Monday against the Oklahoma City Thunder, another tough matchup for L.A.
JJ Redick excited for Lakers to add Luke Kennard
One person who is excited about the Lakers’ addition of Kennard is JJ Redick, a fellow sharpshooting Duke alum.
“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.”
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