LA Clippers: 3 bold predictions for the 2020-21 season
2. Luke Kennard is the best offseason addition
When surveying various offseason grades for the LA Clippers, the focus is often on adding free agent big man Serge Ibaka. What is often just a footnote or a minor transaction is the move to add guard Luke Kennard in a trade with the Detroit Pistons. That misbalance is incorrectly assuming that Ibaka will be the team’s best offseason addition; it will actually be Kennard.
The Clippers should get credit for signing Ibaka. They identified a key need in its roster, a flaw that was a (certainly not the) contributing factor to their playoff washout. Super-sub Montrezl Harrell had a terrible postseason after missing much of the play-in window attending to a family issue. Even at his best, neither he nor starting center Ivica Zubac offered a stretch-big look.
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That changes with Ibaka coming in, as he is a career 36.0 percent shooter from 3-point range, and canned 38.5 percent last season. He has always been a strong rim protector and doesn’t need a high-volume role. In all of those ways he is an upgrade over Harrell.
That being said, he is at least 31 (and rumored to be older than that) and his game clearly declined last year. He doesn’t have the elite athleticism to switch onto the perimeter or come soaring in for monstrous weakside blocks on every single play anymore. He is on the downswing of his career. He will absolutely help this team, but he is not changing the course of the franchise.
Kennard won’t be a franchise-changing player either, but he is still in the stage of his career where he gets better every season and is just 24 years old. His playmaking is much better than advertised, and he can be a reasonable second ballhandler alongside either Paul George or Kawhi Leonard. That’s on top of his sharpshooting, which is always needed among title contenders. Kennard has never shot below 39.4 percent from deep in his three seasons in the league; among Clippers who took at least 100 3-pointers last season, only George shot better than Kennard’s career-worst percentage.
When asked to be a dependent, catch-and-shoot player, he will thrive and fill it even better than the player he is replacing, Landry Shamet. When asked to handle the ball and run offense, Kennard will bring an element this team didn’t have last year. Defensively he is a problem, but no more so than Shamet or Lou Williams were last year. Kennard will not have the volume he had in Detroit, but he will otherwise thrive with the Clippers and could make his way into closing lineups frequently. In the future, he can be the replacement to Williams in running the bench offense.
The Clippers made a long-term commitment to Kennard by signing him to a four-year, $64 million extension on Monday.
Prediction: 14.9 points, 3.7 assists, 3.1 3PM per game