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Lakers’ Luke Kennard relishing ‘full circle’ role with LeBron James

April 11, 2026

LOS ANGELES — Luke Kennard tilted his head toward the locker room ceiling as if to remember, scrolling through his memories in the aftermath of the Lakers’ 101-73 victory against the Phoenix Suns on Friday night after they clinched home-court advantage for the first round of the playoffs.

Searching for the answer, the Lakers’ swingman landed on a day. Kennard blurted out the details from a trip out West.

“Must have been,” Kennard said in an interview with the Southern California News Group before pausing. “I was at his camp for high school kids. It was like an elite camp out in Vegas.”

“It’s actually on my Instagram, which is funny,” Kennard added, “that picture.”

Sure enough. July 5, 2013. The first photo on Kennard’s Instagram account, the one right before Kennard dressed in a black football jersey, holding a football out wide in front of him as a junior student at Franklin High School near Dayton, Ohio, where he lettered three seasons as a right-handed quarterback (Kennard shoots a basketball left-handed).

Kennard, wearing a white polo with LeBron James’ name embroidered on his shirt, is smiling wide at the LeBron James Skills Academy in Las Vegas. To Kennard’s right, with his arm hanging around the then-teenager’s shoulder is James, donning what would now be seen as a retro Florida Marlins baseball cap.

“That was the first time,” Kennard said.

That day in the heat of Nevada summers, a 17-year-old Kennard, a Division I prospect, and James, then 28, met.

Fast forward to Friday night; on Kennard’s right, the gaggle of assorted press had surrounded James, now 41, as they do after every game as he speaks to the media. But now, James is Kennard’s neighbor in the locker room – no longer the star that he’d eventually surpass in the Ohio high school scoring record books, but his peer in purple and gold.

Kennard’s partner on the court is a hero of his youth, a player he idolized coming from Ohio roots and the namesake for his high school AAU program that James sponsored: “King James Shooting Stars.” Now Kennard’s role has evolved from off-the-bench spot shooter into becoming the Lakers’ primary ball handler following the regular-season-ending injuries of Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves.

“He’s always just been a ball player,” James said Friday. “I know a lot of people didn’t watch him throughout this upbringing, but I had the luxury of it because he actually played on my AAU team. And we played him in all different positions. And even high school, I think a little bit at Duke, they put the ball in his hands a little bit, but it kind of started to shape then.”

Kennard has appeared as arguably the league’s most-threatening 3-point shooter since he entered the NBA in 2017. Even in the 2025-26 season, for which he’s split playing time between the Atlanta Hawks and Lakers after a trade deadline swap, Kennard leads the NBA in 3-point percentage at a 47.8% clip. Kennard is more than two percentage points more efficient than the second-place player on the list, Milwaukee Bucks forward Bobby Portis, and will secure 3-point champion recognition for the third time in his career when the regular season wraps Sunday.

Since the Lakers ruled Doncic and Reaves out, Kennard has turned into the Lakers’ secondary option outside of James, who has returned to the limelight after playing in a reduced third-in-command role. Last Saturday, Redick and the coaching staff prepared Kennard for the transformation workload and dramatic shift in usage

In just his second game starting for the Lakers on Sunday against the Dallas Mavericks, Kennard recorded his first-career triple double (15 points, 16 rebounds and 11 assists) in defeat. He then churned out 17 assists in the Lakers’ next two games. On Friday against the Suns, Kennard matched his season-high with 19 points.

Before Reaves and Doncic fell injured against Oklahoma City on April 2, Kennard had averaged 21.9 minutes. In the Lakers’ last five games, Kennard has played 31.3 minutes per game and has assumed point guard duties in the starting lineup.

Kennard called the opportunity to play alongside James a “special opportunity” he wouldn’t take for granted and a “full-circle moment,” especially considering the increase in two-man action that Redick has asked James and Kennard to run. James said the league shaped Kennard’s image as a shooter, building a narrative how fans view the Lakers swingman as primarily a long-range specialist.

“He’s smart as hell,” James said of Kennard. “I’m smart as hell at this game. It does seem like we’ve been playing for a while as teammates, but that’s just the knowledge of the game.”

Redick joked Thursday that Kennard has been typecast in a role with a reputation hard to shed.

‘”I’m sure every time he checked into an AAU tournament in eighth grade, everybody’s screaming, ‘Shooter, shooter. shooter.’” Redick said. “That’s the life we have.”

Redick, like Kennard, played at Duke and reminisced over pre-draft conversations he conducted with his soon-to-be playoffs starter. The Lakers’ head coach said he has known for a long time that Kennard flexed skill sets beyond what was obvious on the periphery, using his shooting and change of speeds on the ball as a threat to make high-IQ plays.

Heading into Sunday, the final regular-season game of the season with a potential third seed in the playoffs still up for grabs when the Lakers play the Utah Jazz (22-59), the onus is on Kennard.

Added weight on Kennard’s shoulders is a reality as the Lakers, a team that lost more than half of its points-and-assists production minus Doncic and Reaves, head into the playoffs next week. For Kennard, the prospects of playing alongside James remains “definitely exciting” as he finds his rhythm on the hardwood.

“It’s a big responsibility,” Kennard told SCNG. “But at the same time, knowing that teammates, coaches, and (James) trust me to make the right play and be organized and get us in those actions to find the right matchups or get the right shot; they want me to be aggressive out of everything that we do together. It brings my level of confidence up a lot.”

Utah at Lakers

When: 5:30 p.m. Sunday

Where: Crypto.com Arena

TV/radio: Spectrum SportsNet/ESPN LA 710

Orange County Register

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Lakers’ Luke Kennard relishing ‘full circle’ role with LeBron James

Utah at Lakers

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