During Summer League, it is given that rookies have to show their worth to the team who drafted them. One rookie who showed his talent was Luke Kennard.
He is the top pick for the Detroit Pistons in this year's draft and is one of the main guys for coach Stan Van Gundy in the coming years.
Top 12 pick of Detroit Pistons, Luke Kennard
Van Gundy is a straight forward coach and didn't hold back on making a quick assessment of the rookie. He wanted Kennard to get better, especially on defense, and take more pride in it than last year. He said that Kennard should change his defensive approach to the game to be able to play on the floor.
Kennard definitely took the coach's advice seriously, as he showed brilliance on the defensive end of the Summer League. He also averaged 17.2 points per game and 48 percent from the 3-point line in his 5 games in the Summer League.
Why Detroit picked Kennard?
Kennard's offense is one of the main reasons why the Detroit Pistons picked him in the draft. They chose him instead of a more athletic Donovan Mitchell, who landed in Utah. Kennard is a great offensive player and knows how to score the basket in lots of ways.
His offense was shown in a full package in the Summer League. One example was when he did a behind curl through the lane assisted by Lorenzo Brown and was wide open to take the bounce pass for an easy bucket in a game with Miami.
In the game against Mavericks, Kennard was shooting 9 out of 15 in the field where he is 3 out of 3 in the three-point line, Kennard able to help the team win the game where he finished with 24 points. In a game against Pistons, Kennard hit a 3-pointer to force overtime and he scored the seven points in OT for the Pistons.
After the Summer League in Orlando, Coach Van Gundy praised Kennard's performance.
He thinks that Kennard is a guy with no fear, he doesn't think anything will going to bother Kennard and he got that toughness to go all out in every game, NBA reported.
Kennard may not be the quickest player but he has high basketball IQ. He knows how to anticipate things that will happen. He may not be that athletic but he makes the right plays.
Kennard acknowledges his weakness, which is defense. He said to the NBA News that the main focus for him is to improve his defense and be in the right spots always. He said that basketball is a mental game and he should be mentally prepared and focused all the time. The performance of Kennard made the Pistons decide to move on without Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, which saves them a huge salary cap.
