The Los Angeles Lakers are getting active at the trade deadline! With other contenders making moves a day before the deadline, LA is joining in on the trade frenzy. However, their trade is a little less flashy than other teams' deals, trading guard Gabe Vincent to the Atlanta Hawks for Luke Kennard.
“The Los Angeles Lakers are trading Gabe Vincent and a 2032 second-round pick to the Atlanta Hawks for Luke Kennard, sources tell ESPN,” Shams Charania reports.
The trade has some important ramifications for both teams, other than acquiring the players involved. Brett Siegel of ClutchPoints outlines how this trade affects both the Lakers and the Hawks' future plans.
“Lakers trading Gabe Vincent for Luke Kennard does a few things,” Siegel explains. “Not only does LA trade their final second-round pick in 2032, but the Hawks can absorb Vincent's contract into their $13.1M TPE that expires tomorrow. By doing so, Atlanta creates a new $11M TPE from Kennard.”
For the Lakers, the goal is simple: trade for one of the best pure shooters in the league. Vincent shot a respectable 36.9% from deep this season, but Kennard is on another level. The new Lakers guard is shooting a whopping 49.7% from deep this season on relatively similar volume to Vincent. This should help bolster LA's shooting around Luka Doncic and LeBron James.
The Lakers have been quiet this trade deadline, though that's likely by design. Dan Woike of The Athletic wrote a few days ago about why LA's atypical trade deadline is a result of their circumstances. “No one internally is writing off the possibility that the Lakers will look different after Thursday’s trade deadline,” he wrote. “Rival teams still describe them as ‘active.' But the reality is their lack of draft assets, players with trade value, and focus on the summer could mean meaningful changes are more likely to come later rather than now.”
