The Phoenix Suns are going to have some new and exciting players as part of their roster next season, and sharpshooter Luke Kennard is going to be one of them.
Fresh off leading the entirely league in 3-point shooting last season, the 30-year-old will be an ideal replacement for the departed Grayson Allen, while he can also replicate some of what Royce O'Neale brought to the table as well.
Collin Gillespie wants Luke Kennard to let them fly like never before
Kennard's new teammate and all round dog Collin "Villain Jr." Gillespie provided a welcome to the former Los Angeles Laker like only he could. Taking to social media to urge the shooter to take nine 3-pointers a night minimum next season (which you can view here).
Gillespie is only joking around, but he's also not wrong. As we've already broken down here, Kennard taking more 3-pointers could be the key to what is a cramped starting five getting more open looks when he is introduced to the action.
Kennard only took 3.1 attempts from deep last season, and although he connected on an insane 47.8 percent of those, the Suns now need him to sacrifice some quality for quantity. Allen was right around that nine mark, and the team needed every one of those in order for their offense to flow properly.
You can be sure Kennard is going to take up a lot of the minutes vacated by Allen, so upping his productivity from the 3-point line should be part of the deal. Failure to do so could see Rasheer Fleming and even Koa Peat begin to wrestle some minutes from him after a fine Summer League showing from the duo.
Working in Kennard's favor to make this happen is a point guard in Gillespie who will always try and get him the ball where he wants it. So too will Jordan Goodwin, while having Devin Booker alongside you is never a bad thing.
Gillespie didn't comment on the need for Kennard to be a secondary playmaker at times, and worryingly for this group he will. Miles Bridges was unfortunately added to solve that issue, but there will be times when Kennard is out there with either one or none of Bridges and Booker.
We're getting ahead of ourselves however, so let's focus on Gillespie rightly wanting him new teammate to take as many 3-pointers as he possibly can when the time comes. He's too good not to.
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