Luke Kennard was having a breakout season before he was struck with injury. It’s been reported that the Pistons have made him available for trade. Here’s three reasons why they shouldn’t trade the third year sharpshooter.
Before being sidelined with knee tendinitis, Luke Kennard was having a fantastic third year in the NBA. He proved that what he was able to do in the playoffs was not a fluke and that he can be a consistent scorer in the league whether it be starting or off the bench.
The emergence of Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk, who was acquired last season in exchange for Reggie Bullock, has led many people to believe that Kennard is expendable now that Mykhailiuk is showing out.
Though what they’re not taking into account is that we have yet to see Kennard and Mykhailiuk play together. While defensively, that would be very porous, the 3-point shooting with those two on the floor would be scary.
It’s not just Mykhailiuk though. We have yet to see Kennard play alongside a lot of the Pistons current rotation players, as part of their youth movement. Guys like Christian Wood, Sekou Doumbouya, Mykhailiuk, and Bruce Brown began to emerge after Kennard has been out with injury.
1. Building for the Future
With most of the Pistons young core being around 22 years of age, Kennard fits right into the mix as he turns 24 in June. He’s only in his third year but it’s kind of like his second year because last year was really where he started to get consistent minutes.
This season he has really shown what he can do with averages of 15.8 points and 4.1 assists per game, on 44.2% from the field and 39.9% on 3s. These are the types of numbers that the Pistons were hoping to get from Kennard, and he delivered before he got hurt.
With a return set on around the All-Star break, it will be interesting to see how he fits with the Pistons re-tooled roster that could look a lot different after the trade deadline. This, of course, is only if the Pistons keep Kennard, which would be a good decision since he’s easy to plug into any lineup and can mesh well with other players either as a spot up shooter or as a pick-and-roll ball handler.
A Derrick Rose, Kennard, Mykhailiuk, Doumbouya, and Wood lineup would be something to see. The guns-and-roses backcourt of Rose and Kennard, along with the young guys Mykhailiuk and Doumbouya, and the lengthy, bouncy Wood holding down the interior, I think this is one of the most fun lineups the Pistons could put on the court, and there’s a chance that’s a lineup we could see a lot of next season.
The rebuild is essentially here and trading Kennard — a guy who fits with the timeline and is on a team friendly contract — doesn’t really make sense, nor would it be productive. Sharpshooters are not hard to find these days, but a sharpshooter that also excels in pick-and-roll situations, and is very good at finding his open teammates is not something that comes around all the time. While we probably don’t have a great grasp for what Luke’s ceiling is, the only way the Pistons can find out is to keep him around and continue to develop his immense talent.