Redick urges new Laker Luke Kennard to embrace his elite shooting. Find out why the Lakers desperately need his spaced floor impact.
The Los Angeles Lakers picked up a big 119-115 comeback win over the Philadelphia 76ers on Thursday night at Crypto.com Arena, improving to 31-19 on the season and sitting in the sixth spot in a packed Western Conference.
But the bigger story coming out of the game was not the final score or even the Luka Doncic hamstring scare that kept the star out of the second half.
It was the message head coach JJ Redick delivered about his newest player.
Redick Wants Kennard to Let It Fly
Just hours before tip-off, the Lakers completed their only move ahead of the February 5th trade deadline, sending Gabe Vincent and a 2032 second-round pick to the Atlanta Hawks in exchange for sharpshooter Luke Kennard.
And after the win, Redick laid out exactly how he plans to use his new addition.
"Excited about Luke," Redick said in his postgame press conference. "I've known him for about 12 years now, and I think he's one of the best shooters in the NBA. I'm going to highly encourage him to shoot more and not turn down shots."
Those words carry weight coming from Redick, who was one of the best shooters of his generation during his playing career and understands what a player like Kennard can bring to a team that desperately needs spacing.
The Lakers rank 21st in three-point shooting percentage this season at 34.9 percent and 23rd in three-pointers made per game with 11.8, numbers that are hard to believe for a team built around Luka Doncic and LeBron James.
Kennard Brings What the Lakers Need Most
Kennard is shooting a career-high 49.7 percent from beyond the arc this season on 3.2 attempts per game, which leads the entire NBA in three-point percentage.
He has led the league in that category in three separate seasons during his career and owns a 44.2 percent mark from deep over nine years, which ranks second all-time in NBA history and first among active players.
The issue has never been whether Kennard can shoot. It has been getting him to shoot enough.
On just 3.2 attempts per game from three, his volume has been modest, and Redick knows that needs to change if this trade is going to pay off for the Lakers down the stretch.
With Doncic drawing double teams on nearly every possession and James commanding attention in the paint, the looks for Kennard should come early and often.
The Timing Could Not Be Better
The trade came on a night that also brought some concern for the Lakers.
Doncic, who is leading the NBA in scoring at 33.4 points per game while also adding 8.7 assists and 7.9 rebounds, left Thursday's game in the first half with left hamstring soreness and did not return.
Redick said after the game that Doncic would undergo imaging and that it was too early to say if the soreness would turn into a longer absence.
If Doncic does miss time, Kennard's shooting becomes even more important for a team that already struggles from deep.
Austin Reaves stepped up in a huge way on Thursday, scoring 35 points in just 25 minutes in his second game back from a calf injury, but the Lakers cannot rely on one player to carry the load without their top scorer in the lineup.
Kennard is not the big splash that some fans were hoping for at the deadline, but he fills a very real hole on this roster.
The Lakers made it through the deadline quietly with an eye on the bigger picture, preserving cap space for the summer while adding a player who can help right now.
And with Redick in his corner telling him to let it fly, Kennard could end up being the piece that takes this offense to another level heading into the second half of the season.