The Los Angeles Lakers only made one trade at this year’s deadline: They shipped out Gabe Vincent and a second-round pick to the Atlanta Hawks in exchange for Luke Kennard. While building a team next to Luka Doncic, the Lakers need to add two things: Three-point shooting and defense. At this year’s deadline, they only added one, and it may not be enough.
Kennard is an elite three-point shooter, so the Lakers got another guy who can knock down his shots when Doncic passes him the ball. But they also added another guy who isn’t the best at holding his own on the defensive end, which isn’t ideal.
And in this stacked Western Conference, that may not be good enough.
Lakers only addressed one Luka Doncic problem at trade deadline
In his Lakers debut, Kennard looked solid. He actually played a ton of minutes coming off the bench, which is an interesting indicator of how JJ Redick plans to play his second unit.
Kennard played 26:04 off the pine, the second-most of any Lakers bench player (behind only Maxi Kleber), in the Lakers’ 105-99 win over the Golden State Warriors on Saturday night.
He finished the game with 10 points, two rebounds, two assists, and one steal while shooting an impressive 4-of-7 from the floor and 2-of-4 from behind the arc.
Again, having shooters like Kennard lining the perimeter will make life much easier for Doncic (and LeBron James and Austin Reaves) on the offensive end.
Unfortunately, his acquisition didn’t make life any easier for Doncic and the Lakers on defense. In fact, it may have put them in an even trickier position moving forward.
For as great a shooter as Kennard is, he’s not the best defender. So, when the playoffs come around, teams in the West will likely have another guy they can look to target on the defensive end.
Plus, the Lakers traded a guy in Vincent who at least knows how to hold his own on defense. Kennard is a very clear overall upgrade from Vincent, but defensively, LA probably got a little bit worse.
It was a solid deadline for the Lakers. Kennard is a good player, and he will help elevate the Lakers’ offense around Doncic.
But as they get ready for a playoff run where they will have to go up against the likes of Kevin Durant, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Anthony Edwards, and more, having another below-average defender on the roster isn’t ideal.
So, while they addressed one of the needs of building a team around Doncic, the Lakers failed to account for the other.