At the time that he signed a four-year, $48 million contract extension, Jarred Vanderbilt had played 26 regular season games and 15 playoff games with the Los Angeles Lakers. Fast forward just three years and he played a mere 10.7 minutes per contest during the 2026 NBA Playoffs. Unfortunately, despite his limited playing time, Vanderbilt still has two years and $25,714,285 remaining on his deal.
Though Vanderbilt has dealt with his share of injuries along the way, the Lakers' mishandling of his contract negotiations should teach them a valuable lesson when it's time to talk to Luke Kennard.
Kennard played 32 regular season games and 10 playoff games for the Lakers in 2025-26. He excelled in his role as a sharpshooting wing with under-appreciated proficiency as a shot creator. Unfortunately, he's now headed to unrestricted free agency just as quickly as he arrived.
According to Dave McMenamin of ESPN, the Lakers are interested in re-signing Kennard—and Kennard is seemingly hoping to put pen to paper on a long-term deal.
"The Lakers are interested in retaining Marcus Smart and sharpshooter Luke Kennard, sources told ESPN...Kennard, for his part, was on an $11 million expiring contract and has interest in making L.A. his long-term home after previously playing 2½ seasons with the LA Clippers."
Though Kennard provided his share of flashes of brilliance, the Lakers can't afford to sign him to a long-term contract with such a small sample size of success on an incomplete team.
Luke Kennard seemingly wants long-term deal despite small sample size
Kennard is a tremendous shooter and a talented player who has proven to fit rather well in Los Angeles. He averaged 9.0 points, 2.6 rebounds, 2.4 assists, 0.7 steals, and 1.3 three-point field goals made in 23.0 minutes per game after being traded to the Lakers, shooting at a clip of .527/.448/.912.
Much as Vanderbilt stepped up during the 2023 NBA Playoffs as a lockdown defender, Kennard turned heads during the 2026 postseason with explosive scoring performances.
Kennard scored 27, 23, 18, 14, and 10 points in five eye-opening postseason performances. The trouble with factoring that into his next contract, however, is that doing so would require neglecting critical pieces of context that should inform Los Angeles' decision.
That includes the fact that Kennard averaged 4.6 points on .259/.250/.857 shooting between his other five postseason appearances in 2026.
Luke Kennard rarely played alongside Lakers' complete core
To make matters worse, Kennard played a grand total of 22 games alongside Lakers franchise player Luka Doncic. He played just 19 games with Doncic, LeBron James, and Austin Reaves all in the lineup. Considering the Lakers may continue to operate with that trio at the heart of their system, that's an alarmingly small sample size to base a multi-year contract on.
Though Kennard is an outstanding shooter who should be able to help that trio, his defensive woes and the streaky nature of how assertive he is as a scorer are major red flags with limited film to dispute their merit.
This isn't to say that the Lakers shouldn't re-sign Kennard, but instead that his goal of making Los Angeles his "long-term home" is one they shouldn't be so quick to accommodate. This is the Lakers' first offseason with cap space during the Doncic era and tying up a long-term deal in a player who doesn't help the defense and may not actually fit with the current core would be a remarkably risky move.
Considering Kennard made $11 million in 2025-26, a long-term deal in that range would have all of the makings of the Lakers repeating their Vanderbilt mistake.
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