The Los Angeles Lakers' top three players entering free agency after the season are LeBron James, Rui Hachimura, and Luke Kennard. LeBron is the first domino that must fall before the Lakers make any other decisions this summer. While James can obviously leave LA for a different team, new speculations from ESPN's Brian Windhorst arrived this week pointing at an inevitable LeBron-LA reunion.
Windhorst also provided his forecast on Kennard's summer, asserting that LA will definitely look to bring back the league's best 3-point shooter.
Brian Windhorst says Lakers will want to re-sign Luke Kennard
"Luke Kennard has been a nice addition, and they're going to want to re-sign him because they are not going to be able to easily replace him," Windhorst said while appearing as a guest on Jason Timpf's Hoops Tonight podcast.
Windhorst also spoke about Hachimura, suggesting that Rui will be slightly easier to replace than Kennard, but that doing so wouldn't be a simple ordeal.
Kennard and Hachimura are currently massive players for the Lakers' organization, as both will be needed to level up against the Houston Rockets in the absence of Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves in this first-round playoff series beginning on Saturday. With the Lakers' offensive game plan likely to revolve around a high volume of 3-point attempts, Kennard will be launching from all over the court, and LA will need him to continue to shoot the ball at an elite percentage.
Hachimura, meanwhile, will have to be a beast on the backboard against a Rockets team that rebounds better than almost any squad in recent NBA history. The battle on the glass could very well be where this series is won and lost. If the Lakers are able to hold their own on the boards, it'll enable them to exploit the Rockets in other ways. If LA gets completely dominated physically and loses the rebounding war by a large margin, this series could get ugly fast.
Luke Kennard's future with Lakers might already be secure
Both Kennard and Hachimura will be essential for the Lakers, but neither is playing with their Lakers future on the line, especially in the case of Kennard. He's displayed enough this season to prove his value to LA's front office, and even the average fan can see that he's a good fit alongside Doncic.
Kennard's shooting is his greatest offering, of course, but he's not as much of a liability on defense as you would expect. He competes defensively to a noble degree and does what he can. He's a player who can and will help the Lakers win a lot of games in the Luka era if LA takes care of its business and re-signs Kennard to a new contract this offseason.
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