ACC: Duke’s Luke Kennard Most Impressive Offensive Weapon

With a team full of injuries, Luke Kennard stepped up for the Duke Blue Devils in the first month of the season

Luke Kennard turning into arguably the most complete offensive player in the nation from a mere spot-up shooter as a freshman isn’t the surprise, rather it’s that he made the jump this season.

Jayson Tatum, Marques Bolden, Frank Jackson and Harry Giles stole the headlines in the offseason. Duke landed two of the top three recruits in 2016 to land the top recruiting class for the second time in three years.

Junior guard Grayson Allen also became a preseason All-America and the favorite to be the player of the year at season’s end.

Injuries hit Duke hard, to say the least. Only four players have played in all 11 games during Duke’s 10-1 start and the Blue Devils are still not fully healthy.

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Players such as Amile Jefferson, who is averaging a double-double, stepped up in midst of all the injuries, but none more so than Luke Kennard.

As previously mentioned, it’s not a surprise that Kennard is capable of being a 20-points-per-game scorer at the college level.

He finished ahead of LeBron James and second in Ohio high school basketball history with 2,977 career points. Kennard also scored a ridiculous 38.1 points per game as a senior, while shooting 59.3 percent from the field, 49 percent from three and 89 percent from the line.

Those are numbers that even James had to acknowledge.

All of that became an afterthought last year, though. For the betterment of the team, Kennard only took 9.3 shots per game and became mostly a spot-up shooter from three — 51.3 percent of his shots came from behind the arc.

With all of Duke’s injuries this season, Kennard rose to the occasion.

He leads the team in scoring at 20 points per game, ranks second in assists with 3.2 per game and is third in rebounds and steals at 6.1 and 1.2 per game, respectively.

He’s shot himself into the national player of the year conversation and currently is acting as Duke’s top scoring option over Grayson Allen. He leads the team with 13.5 shot attempts per game and is still an extremely effective scorer.

This season, Kennard is shooting 52 percent from the field and 40.9 percent from three, which is more than an eight percent increase in each category from his freshman season.

Although, Kennard’s impact on Duke this season goes beyond improved shooting. Despite Kennard rarely being praised for shutdown defense, his offense makes up for it.

As a sophomore, he’s playing with the ball in his hands more often, which is helping him get back to being an all-around threat like in high school.

He still attempts six threes per game, but just 44.6 percent of his shots come from behind the arc this season. It’s telling of his more balanced offensive attack.

He’s getting into the lane, which helps his shooting percentage, and is showing why he’s arguably the most prolific scorer to ever come out of the state of Ohio. Kennard’s ability to knock down shots from anywhere on the court mirrors what many expected Allen to do this year.

In a way, Duke now has two Grayson Allens in terms of their versatile offensive repertoire and aggressiveness on that end. Allen’s superior athleticism became known with his tomahawk dunk over UNLV, but both can score from seemingly anywhere on the court.

What separates Kennard from other elite scorers, though, is his willingness to pass.

Kennard attempting double-digit shots in all but one game and 15-plus shots in five games this year shows his aggressiveness as a scorer, but he doesn’t force bad shots because he has great court vision and trusts his teammates.

His 3.3 assists per game and the fact that he’s recorded four-plus assists just four times this year doesn’t do justice to that aspect of his game.

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However, it’s not a coincidence that more shots open up for him when he looks for his teammates. Kennard shoots 54.7 percent from the field when recording at least four assists this season, compared to 50.9 percent when he records three or fewer.

Through the first month of the season, Kennard’s stats are everything basketball junkies love. He impacts the game in all areas and is one of the most effective scorers in the nation.

That being said, while beating up on team bad teams looks good on the stat sheet, it really matters how he performs against tough competition.

According to CBSSports, Duke only owns the 67th toughest schedule in the nation and their opponent’s record ranks 80th with a .568 winning percentage.

Even though it’s far from the toughest schedule in the nation, the Blue Devils have still played three ranked teams — Kansas, Rhode Island and Florida.

Against ranked teams, Kennard ups his production. Here’s a look at his numbers against ranked teams and unranked teams:

• Ranked Opponents: 25.0 PPG, 4.3 RPG, 3.3 APG, 70.3 FG%, 68.8 3P%
• Unranked Opponents: 18.1 PPG, 6.8 RPG, 3.3 APG, 45.9 FG%, 32.0 3P%

For one, it shows how consistently well he rebounds for a guard, but it also shows that Kennard stepped up as a scorer in all three games. Sure, he scored 35 points on 11-of-16 shooting against Maine and recorded 20 points and six rebounds against Appalachian State.

But shooting better than 70 percent against Kansas and Rhode Island and scoring 29 points on 11-of-16 shooting against Florida exemplifies his leadership role as Duke’s top option.

Against Duke’s most recent ranked opponent, Florida, Jayson Tatum had a breakout game with 22 points, but with Allen shooting 2-of-10 from the field and 1-of-5 from three, Kennard is who stepped up the most in Duke’s win.

He got into the lane, used screens to get open from three and created shots for himself.

Plus, Kennard always seemed to make a big shot or assist whenever the Gators started to get close in the second half.

Three times in the second half, Kennard answered a Florida bucket that cut the Duke lead to single digits, scoring eight points in the process. He also assisted on an Amile Jefferson basket that gave Duke a 12-point lead after Florida cut the lead to 10.

Still, with Tatum quickly becoming a major part of Duke’s offense, Giles returning before Christmas, and Allen scoring a game-high 34 points against UNLV, as a way to say he’s back and healthy, Kennard likely won’t be able to maintain his 20 points per game average.

The once-projected sixth man will stay in the starting lineup and will have as big of an offensive role as anyone on Duke this season, but he’s no longer the only healthy elite scoring option.

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Even if his numbers start to decline as the season goes on, the two-time Ohio Basketball High School Player of the Year is in the national player of the year conversation through one month and will continue to be a top priority for any team playing Duke.