Rob Pelinka, the Lakers president of basketball operations and general manager, had high praise for Luke Kennard, the NBA team’s newest acquisition.
“Clearly, right now, he’s the game’s best shooter,” Pelinka said to a handful of reporters before Kennard made his Lakers debut in Saturday’s matchup against the Warriors. “When you get to add the best shooter in the game to your group at the deadline, it’s a great opportunity. So, we seized it.”
No wonder the Lakers were eager to add Kennard.
Statistically, Pelinka is right. Kennard was shooting 49.7% from beyond the arc this season entering Saturday to lead the NBA.
And for a team that’s struggled with its outside shooting for most of the season, shooting 34.9% from beyond the arc (No. 21 in the league entering Saturday), Kennard will fill a need.
“We just felt like the gravity and space he could create for the group with LeBron (James), or with Luka (Doncic), or Austin (Reaves), just being a reliable guy that could create space, hit big shots in big games and really help us on a playoff run.
“We’ve really been hopeful to see our big three on the court at the same time in terms of Austin Reaves, Luka and LeBron, and we’ve just had limited reps of that,” Pelinka said. “So we’ll be excited when we get that and see what that group could do because we feel like there’s some power in those three players playing together. We felt like adding Luke when those three guys are on the court would actually be really helpful. Just to create some optionality with different lineups, like an all-shooting lineup with Rui (Hachimura) and Luke, and maybe those three guys if you decide to go small in a playoff series.”
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By trading Gabe Vincent and their 2032 second-round pick for Kennard ahead of Thursday’s trade deadline, the Lakers maintained their “optionality” for the offseason.
The Lakers can trade three of their first-round draft picks (2026, 2031 and 2033).
They’ll also have five players who’ll become unrestricted free agents in the summer after their contracts expire (James, Hachimura, Kennard, Maxi Kleber and Jaxson Hayes).
The Lakers also have three players with player options for 2026-27 (Reaves, Deandre Ayton and Marcus Smart), potentially creating significant cap flexibility for the franchise.
“It’s clear for all the teams in the league that this dual-apron system is harsh and strict,” Pelinka said. “We felt like creating optionality or having optionality now is really a positive thing for us this coming offseason. Because there’s some teams that maybe have gotten too deep into the aprons. And I think players, we see around the league, become available when teams get in that position. So, whether it’s through free agency, whether it’s keeping our own players, whether it’s looking around the league for players that are really good that maybe teams are trying to get off salary, we feel like there’ll be so many different ways to complete our roster in the offseason.”
Pelinka said the team was “aggressive” ahead of the trade deadline.
“And one form of being aggressive is saying no to moves that come your way that might not be best for the short- and long-term future,” he said. “Because it’s hard to say no sometimes to getting a good player that could be a quick short-term fix but could have implications for the long term where it doesn’t fit into the overall vision you have for the team.
“We were very aggressive. We worked incredibly hard. We evaluated numerous things.”
Pelinka reiterated his belief in the current group’s ability to contend for an NBA title. The Lakers entered Saturday with a 31-19 record despite Doncic, James and Reaves playing alongside each other in only 10 games so far this season.
“We believe in the power of this group,” Pelinka said. “We want to see what this team can do with the rest of the season. I wouldn’t underestimate the power of what a group of brothers can do when they come together for a playoff run. We feel like we have a really good roster, and we want to get healthy and make a run, and that will help us evaluate end-of-the-season stuff, too. We haven’t made any decisions about any of that prematurely.”
