The Los Angeles Lakers wasted little time integrating trade deadline acquisition Luke Kennard into the rotation, and LeBron James already believes the veteran guard can be a major offensive asset moving forward.
“First of all, I haven’t even gotten to the point where I even confronted him about breaking my scoring record in Ohio, when he passed me,” James said according to postgame media. “But he did play for my AAU team, so we kinda even.
“But I mean listen, he’s a really good basketball player. A lot of people kind of harp on his shooting obviously ’cause he shoots the ball so elite. But his playmaking ability as well. Him being able to crack the defense when they run him off the line. And he made some great spread out passes today. After he had just hit a 3 across from our bench. He had another one, by our bench and passed it up ’cause he saw Vando (Jarred Vanderbilt) underneath the hole, underneath the rim and Vando got the dunk, forced them [the Warriors] to call a timeout. So just a really good basketball player [that] we happen to have.”
Lakers head coach JJ Redick echoed those sentiments, specifically praising Kennard’s ability to process defenses and make quick decisions within the offense.
“I just thought the guys played really good basketball and you could see with Luke in particular, just his ability to just make reads and make plays,” Redick said, via Lakers Nation. “He’s not a guy you’re going to like give the ball to in [isolation] and then he is going to, bend the defense but he’s a smart basketball player and he knows how to play, and he knows how to make reads. The way his 0.5 mentality works is, he doesn’t always get the assist, but generally speaking, he’s going to attack a closeout. He is gonna get a shot fake and then swing the ball, and that leads to something good. So, I thought, he was, for his first time with us and getting here yesterday was really good.”
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