Luke Kennard may be the Lakers’ missing piece of a title run

Rob Pelinka, the Lakers basketball president and general manager, highly praised Luke Kennard, the new acquisition of the NBA team.

“Obviously, right now, he’s the best shooter in the game,” Pelinka told several reporters before Kennard made his Lakers debut in Saturday’s game against the Warriors. “When you get to add the best shooter in the game to your team at the deadline, it’s a great opportunity. So, we took 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 has struggled from the outside 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 felt like the gravity and the space could make a team with LeBron (James), or Luke (Doncic), or Austin (Reaves), just like he’s a reliable guy who can create space, make big shots in big games and really help us in the playoffs.”

“We had high hopes to see our big three on the court at the same time with Austin Reaves, Luka and LeBron, and we had limited responses to that,” Pelinka said. “So we’ll be excited to get that and see what that team can do because we feel like there’s power in those three guys playing together. We felt like adding Luke when those three guys are on the court would be really helpful. To create some options with a different lineup, like a full shooting lineup with Rui (Hachimura) and Luke, and maybe those three younger guys in the lineup if you decide to play out.”

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By trading Gabe Vincent and their 2032 second-round pick Kennard before Thursday’s trade deadline, the Lakers kept their “option” for the offseason.

The Lakers can trade three of their first-round draft picks (2026, 2031 and 2033).

They will have five players who will be unrestricted free agents this 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), who would likely create the franchise’s biggest dynamic.

“It is clear from all the teams in the league that this apron system is strong and strong,” said Pelinka. “We felt that making a choice or a choice now is a good thing for us this coming season. Because there are other teams that may be very deep in the aprons. And I think that the players, we see in the whole league, are available when the teams get to that situation. So, whether it’s because of the choice, whether it’s to keep our players, whether it’s looking everywhere to get the salaries of really good players, like there are players trying to get salaries. It’s been a lot of different ways to complete our list in the season that just entered.”

Pelinka said the team was “aggressive” before the trade deadline.

“And another way to be aggressive is to say no to actions that come your way that may not be good for the short- and long-term future,” he said. “Because it is difficult to refuse at times to find a high-quality player which may be a quick solution but which may have an impact in the long term when it does not fit into the vision you have for the team.

“We were very aggressive. We worked incredibly hard. We tested a lot of things.”

Pelinka reiterated his belief in the current team’s ability to contend for the NBA title. The Lakers entered Saturday with a 31-19 record despite Doncic, James and Reaves playing together in just 10 games so far this season.

“We believe in the potential of this team,” said Pelinka. “We want to see what this team can do the rest of the season. I’m not going to underestimate what a group of brothers can do when they come together to make the playoffs. We feel like we have a really good roster, and we want to be healthy and make a run, and that will help us evaluate things for the end of the season, too. We haven’t made any decisions about that yet.”