For the Los Angeles Lakers fans who were sitting around and begging their team to do something, they have! Rob Pelinka will not be completely absent from this year's NBA trade deadline.
Shams Charania reported: "The Los Angeles Lakers are trading Gabe Vincent and a 2032 second-round pick to the Atlanta Hawks for Luke Kennard, sources tell ESPN."
This one actually hits two birds with one stone for the portion of the Los Angeles fanbase that was also begging to see Gabe Vincent go elsewhere. There truly might be no bigger fan of this move than Luka Doncic, though.
During his time with the Dallas Mavericks, Doncic had plenty of catch-and-shoot guys flanking him, ready to capitalize off his gravity on offense. The Lakers do not have nearly enough of those players. It's only a start, but they finally get a reliable one here.
Luke Kennard's shooting will instantly elevate the Lakers offense
The fact that it only took a second-round pick to go from Vincent to Kennard is a little mind-boggling. Pelinka got great value with the deal. The Lakers general manager also managed to maintain the precious cap space that has continued to be a priority ahead of the summer.
Kennard arrives on a one-year, $11 million contract. After this season is over, it's a clean slate for the Lakers. This is truly a have your cake and eat it too type of situation for Los Angeles.
Meanwhile, Kennard shooting be eating up easy perimeter looks. The newest Laker has made an entire career off capitalizing in those moments.
Over his entire time in the NBA, Kennard shoots 44.2 percent from beyond the arc. Just this season? Kennard is connecting on 49.7 percent of his 3.2 attempts in the 20.5 minutes per game that he's played. That figure leads the NBA at this time.
The downside here would be that Kennard is certainly not going to be helping the Lakers defense in the near future. This would be another example of Pelinka grabbing a player who only plays one end of the basketball court.
However, the effectiveness from deep is just too hard to ignore as valuable when the Lakers are only hitting 34.9 percent of their shots in that department. That ranks 22nd in the NBA (not good).
After watching a couple opportunities pass them by, the Lakers made their move. It was not perfect, but it will still be a boost in one major area.