Luke Kennard is an elite shooter. A career 44% 3-point gunner, the newest member of the Los Angeles Lakers is a sharpshooter in the truest sense of the word. But by himself, he's not a player who takes the Lakers from a middle-of-the-pack team in the West to a title threat.
The Lakers knew that though, and that's why so many fans were frustrated with how the team operated at the deadline; adding Kennard, though nice on its own merits, is not the difference-making move that changes the ceiling of this team.
On Monday, in a 119-110 loss to the Thunder, that became clear. Yes, the Lakers were playing without Luka Doncic. But the Thunder were playing without Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and were still clearly better than the Lakers down the stretch. A player like Kennard doesn't swing games like that. And there were players available who the Lakers could have added who do swing games like that, which is what makes this so maddening.
Instead, Rob Pelinka and the front office basically want fans to accept this team for what it is and hope there's a splashy move this summer. It's not egregious tanking like other teams are pulling off right now, but it does feel like an admission of defeat.
Maybe it's trite to make such big declarations from a regular season game in mid-February. But last night wasn't a one-off, it's something that fans should get used to. The Lakers quite simply don't have enough good players to compete with top-end teams. They made the decision not to change that at the deadline — and these are the consequences of that. It's a lot of Jaxson Hayes minutes and Marcus Smart shooting the ball 16 times.
LeBron gets honest about Lakers after loss to Thunder
I've said it before — the Lakers are good. They're going to win a lot of games! But with such clear holes, and likely only a half-season left of LeBron James, their deadline inactivity was always an odd choice.
For what it's worth, James himself is aware of this conundrum.
"You want me to compare us to them? That's a championship team right there. We're not."
He's right. There's a chasm between playoff teams and championship teams, and the Lakers trade deadline showed they're fine with being the former this year, while hoping that they luck into Giannis in the offseason. That's a strategy, I suppose.