No. 1 LA Clipper most likely to be traded this offseason: Luke Kennard
I like some of what I saw from Luke Kennard in the playoffs, but the LA Clippers are paying way too much for him.
He’s playing on a three-year/$41.2 million contract. Guys on those types of contracts usually don’t only score 8.3 points per game and don’t really provide much on defense.
But that’s who we have in Kennard. If Kennard got more minutes, he’d score a little closer to that 15.8 a game he had in his last year with Detroit. And he will get more minutes if Kawhi’s going to be out.
But I still would rather trade him than pay him this much. If we can toss his contract on a trade or sign-and-trade, we should do it. It would be tough, but I’m sure there are still GMs who were interested in the former 12th overall pick back in 2017 and would still like to employ Kennard’s talents.
The former consensus All-American at Duke was still a top ten three-point shooter (in terms of percentage) this year, and everybody could always use another sharpshooter.
Our team can win a championship next year as is, but don’t be surprised if we use the trade value we currently have to upgrade.