{"id":716145,"date":"2026-04-22T21:12:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T21:12:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/716145\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T21:12:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T21:12:20","slug":"luke-kennard-is-making-hawks-look-silly-for-trading-him-as-he-thrives-in-playoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/716145\/","title":{"rendered":"Luke Kennard is making Hawks look silly for trading him as he thrives in playoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5n\">The Atlanta Hawks made a series of moves before the trade deadline, with their biggest involving Trae Young and Kristaps Porzi\u0146\u0121is. CJ McCollum and Jonathan Kuminga were both instrumental in the team&#8217;s Game 2 playoff win over the Knicks, just enough to overshadow their deadline mistake, but not erase it. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5q\">Luke Kennard is making sure of that, as he scored 27 points on 9-of-13 shooting from the field and a perfect 5-of-5 from three in Los Angeles&#8217; Game 1 107-98 win over Houston. He added four points and three assists. In Tuesday&#8217;s Game 2, he had 23 points on 8-of-13 shooting from the field and 3-of-6 from deep to go with six rebounds, two assists, and three steals in the Lakers&#8217; 104-94 win. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5t\">With Luka Don\u010di\u0107 and Austin Reaves out for LA, Kennard has risen to the occasion, embracing the star life beside LeBron James. <\/p>\n<p>Luke Kennard is on a hot streak for the Lakers in playoffs<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5z\">Atlanta signed Kennard to a one-year, $11 million deal last summer, bringing the sharpshooter to town, in hopes he&#8217;d help the Hawks <a href=\"https:\/\/soaringdownsouth.com\/hawks-finally-granted-luke-kennard-longtime-wish\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">contend for a title<\/a> with Young and Porzi\u0146\u0121is. The Hawks shifted plans entirely before the deadline, getting rid of all three. Moving on from the point guard and center was necessary, and the team is better off for it, but you can&#8217;t say the same with Luke. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"62\">He&#8217;s proving that he&#8217;s more than just a three-point shooter, knocking down midrange shots, taking care of the ball, and playing with a new level of intensity. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"65\">Maybe the change of scenery, returning to LA, where he spent a few seasons with the Clippers, was what Kennard needed over staying in Atlanta. It probably helps that he&#8217;s playing for JJ Redick, who, like him, went to Duke and built his reputation in the NBA as a three-point specialist. The head coach has helped to unlock a new version of Luke, one that the Hawks wish they had gotten to see. <\/p>\n<p>Trading Luke Kennard for Vincent and a second-round pick was an L <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6b\">Gabe Vincent, whom Atlanta received in the deal for Kennard, has been a non-factor, though there is <a href=\"https:\/\/soaringdownsouth.com\/hawks-secret-weapon-history-showing-playoffs\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">still time to change that<\/a>. He had two points in Game 1&#8217;s loss to the Knicks and three on Monday. If the trade had never happened and Vincent were still in LA, the Lakers would probably be staring at a 2-0 deficit right now. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6e\">Hey, but that 2032 second-round pick Atlanta also received in the deal might turn into someone special! Like Nikola Joki\u0107 or Jalen Brunson. That&#8217;s not an absolute dream scenario or anything. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-10\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6h\">That pick is still years away, though, and the Hawks may not still have it when that draft rolls around. It&#8217;d be nice to have Playoff Luke in the meantime, who is setting himself up for a nice payday if he keeps it up. <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.minutemediacdn.com\/platform\/google_discover_icon.svg\" class=\"shrink-0\"\/>Add us as a preferred source on Google<a aria-label=\"Follow soaringdownsouth.com on Google News\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=soaringdownsouth.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"flex h-[30px] w-[30px] shrink-0 items-center justify-center rounded-full bg-primary font-group-large text-sm font-medium text-white transition-colors hover:bg-secondary focus:bg-secondary md:w-auto md:gap-2.5 md:px-4 md:py-[5px]\">Follow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Atlanta Hawks made a series of moves before the trade deadline, with their biggest involving Trae Young&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":716146,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3790],"tags":[7,4034,1698,300,4044,251,150,4033,4043,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-716145","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-lakers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-la","10":"tag-la-lakers","11":"tag-lakers","12":"tag-lalakers","13":"tag-los-angeles","14":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","15":"tag-losangeles","16":"tag-losangeleslakers","17":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116450424103234499","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=716145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716145\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/716146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=716145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=716145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=716145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}