Luke Kennard Quietly Emerging As the Lakers’ Playoff X-Factor

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Luke Kennard quickly emerging into one of the Lakers’ most important player amid playoff push.

When the Los Angeles Lakers traded for Luke Kennard at the NBA Trade Deadline, the move didn’t register as a franchise-altering headline. But early returns suggest the deal may have quietly solved one of the Lakers’ biggest offensive problems.

Los Angeles acquired Kennard from the Atlanta Hawks in exchange for Gabe Vincent and a 2032 second-round pick, a midseason move aimed at fixing the Lakers’ struggling perimeter shooting. At the time of the trade, Los Angeles ranked 28th in the NBA in three-point shooting, while Kennard was hitting over 49 percent from beyond the arc earlier in the 2025-26 season. The Lakers weren’t looking for a star. They were looking for spacing.

Through his first stretch of games in Los Angeles, Kennard hs provided exactly that. In roughly 22.3 minutes per game, he is averaging 10.1 points, while shooting an extremely efficient 61 percent from the field, 50 percent from three and 92 percent from the free throw line. That level of efficiency may normalize over time, but the impact on the Lakers’ offense has already been noticeable.

In a small but meaningful sample, the Lakers are scoring 125 points per 100 possessions with Kennard on the floor, outscoring opponents by roughly seven points per 100 possessions in those minutes. For a team that struggled to convert offensive advantages earlier in the season, that change matters.

Kennard Desperately Solves Spacing Issue

The Lakers’ offense often stalled earlier in the year because the roster lacked consistent perimeter threats. Surprisingly, all season long the Lakers’ most effective and consistent three-point shooter has been Rui Hachimura who is still shooting around 43 percent on just over four attempts a game. Hachimura has been improving his shooting every season since entering the league, but it’s telling that in a lineup next to Luka Doncic, LeBron James and Austin Reaves that Hachimura stands out as the team’s main floor spacer in the starting lineup.

In a recent episode of Hoops Tonight, podcast host Jason Timpf highlighted how despite shooting low volume, Kennard’s presence off the bench has been a major uplift for Los Angeles.

“Luke Kennard brings things to this basketball team that they don’t have and it’s allowing them to reach a level on offense that they really haven’t reached at any point.”

Kennard’s reputation as one of the league’s elite shooters forces defenders to stay attached to him on the perimeter. When help defenders collapse toward the paint, leaving him open becomes a major risk. That type of spacing is exactly what the Lakers were missing earlier in the season.

By comparison, Vincent averaged 19.3 minutes per game across 29 appearances for the Lakers, producing 4.8 points per game on 34.6 percent shooting from the field and 36.9 percent from three. His defense and playmaking had value, but they did little to solve the team’s spacing problem.

Lakers Will Need Kennard in the Playoffs

Kennard’s presence changes that equation. Instead of defenders freely helping off the perimeter, they must account for one of the league’s most efficient shooters. That difference alone reshapes how opposing defenses approach the Lakers.

In the playoffs, Kennard’s floor spacing becomes even more essential. With the game slowing down, becoming more physical and consolidating into more of a half court setting, Kennard’s gravity could play a major factor in opening up the offense for their star trio. It might not be the sexiest name to call upon under the bright lights of a postseason push, but he may be just the player Los Angeles needs to catch fire in order to make a deep playoff run.

Jalon Dixon Jalon Dixon is a multi-platform sports journalist and content creator specializing in NBA and WNBA coverage. He blends writing, podcasting, and video analysis to deliver accessible, in-depth perspectives on basketball and beyond. More about Jalon Dixon