Luke Kennard Stats: $13M Suns Deal, Three 3P% Titles

Luke Kennard, the most accurate three-point shooter in the NBA in 2025-26, reportedly agreed to a two-year, $13 million contract with the Phoenix Suns on July 1, 2026, according to the Associated Press, NBA.com News Services and ESPN's Shams Charania. The reported deal includes a player option for the second season and cannot yet be formally executed while the league's moratorium on contract signings runs until noon Eastern on July 6.

From Atlanta to Los Angeles to Phoenix

Kennard opened the 2025-26 season with the Atlanta Hawks after signing a one-year deal there in the summer of 2025. He spent his first 46 games as a Hawk before the Los Angeles Lakers moved at the trade deadline.

On February 5, 2026, the NBA's official trade tracker confirmed the Lakers had landed Kennard from Atlanta in exchange for guard Gabe Vincent and a 2032 second-round draft pick. That was a completed transaction confirmed by both franchises, distinct from the free-agent agreement with Phoenix that followed in July.

He played 32 regular-season games for Los Angeles, then another 10 in the 2026 playoffs. Phoenix, where he reportedly agreed terms on July 1, would become the sixth NBA franchise of his career, following the Detroit Pistons, Los Angeles Clippers, Memphis Grizzlies, Hawks and Lakers.

The agreement was first reported by Shams Charania on ESPN. The Associated Press, Reuters and NBA.com News Services each subsequently published their own confirmations. The AP explicitly reported that the deal could not yet be signed while the moratorium remained in effect.

2025-26 Season Statistics

Across all 78 games 46 with Atlanta and 32 with Los Angeles Kennard averaged 8.4 points, 2.3 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game, per ESPN's career statistical table. He shot 53.3% from the field overall, based on 236 made field goals from 443 attempts.

His three-point numbers were the headline: 117 makes on 245 attempts for a 47.8% rate that led the entire NBA.

The Atlanta and Lakers splits differed slightly. In 46 Hawks games, he averaged 7.9 points and shot 49.7% from three a figure NBA.com's own trade-deadline coverage confirmed at the time, noting he ranked No. 1 in the league in three-point percentage. In 32 Lakers games those figures moved to 9.0 points and 44.8% from three. Both fractions sit comfortably above the rate most franchises build their perimeter spacing around.

Reuters reported that Kennard averaged 11.5 points, 3.5 rebounds and 2.3 assists across 10 Los Angeles playoff appearances. Across the full 78-game regular season, per ESPN's stat table, he averaged 21.5 minutes and started just six games all six with the Lakers, after entering as a reserve in every one of his 46 appearances with Atlanta still delivering one of the more efficient shooting profiles on the 2026 free-agent market.

Three Times Leading the NBA in Three-Point Percentage

The 47.8% mark in 2025-26 was Kennard's third career three-point percentage title. He posted 44.9% in 2021-22 and 49.4% in 2022-23 to claim two previous league-leading marks, according to his official NBA biography.

His 49.4% mark in 2022-23 sits among the highest single-season figures ever recorded under the NBA's official qualifying minimums. The three-season gap between that result and his 2025-26 title spanned a franchise change, a trade deadline move and a change of system and his accuracy held through all of it.

In the two seasons between his second and third titles, his rate stayed above 40% even when the league-leading mark went to other players. The 47.8% in 2025-26 returned the title.

He has shot above 40% from three in every season since 2020-21. His only season below that line was 2019-20, when he posted 39.9%.

Career Numbers: 1,020 Threes Over Nine Seasons

Through the end of 2025-26, ESPN's career table shows Kennard with 538 regular-season games, 1,020 made three-pointers on 2,307 attempts, a 44.2% career three-point percentage and a 46.6% overall field-goal rate. He has averaged 1.9 made threes per game across nine NBA seasons.

Detroit selected him 12th overall in the 2017 NBA Draft, per his NBA Stats profile, after two seasons at Duke University. He grew up in Franklin, Ohio, stands 6 feet 5 inches and weighs 206 pounds. He turned 30 on June 24, 2026.

His 127 career starts across 538 games confirm a career spent primarily in reserve and specialist roles. The 44.2% career accuracy held constant regardless of role or franchise. The reported two-year deal with a second-year player option gives Kennard the right to return to the open market after one season if his production holds at this level.

Phoenix's Case for a Specialist

A 44.2% career three-point rate across more than 2,300 attempts and three individual league titles in that category give Phoenix a shooter whose accuracy is documented at length. At 30, with nine seasons of consistent output behind him, the franchise is not speculating on a career-best season it is contracting for a verified pattern.

The 2026-27 NBA salary cap was set at $164.961 million, per the league's own announcement. The reported average annual value of approximately $6.5 million falls well below Phoenix's available cap tools and represents the cost of a reserve specialist rather than a primary offensive option.

The Lakers' Offseason Movement

Kennard's reported exit is one piece of a wider Los Angeles reconstruction. Austin Reaves reportedly agreed to a four-year, $185 million maximum contract to remain with the franchise, according to Reuters, which listed his 2025-26 averages at 23.3 points, 5.5 assists and 4.7 rebounds across 51 games.

Rui Hachimura, whose reported three-year, $51 million contract expired after 2025-26, had no new agreement listed on the NBA's live offseason transaction tracker as of July 1. That absence reflects only what has been publicly disclosed, not the status of any private discussions.

LeBron James is also working through his own position with the franchise. His agent, Rich Paul, confirmed to ESPN that James has informed the Lakers he intends to play elsewhere for the 2026-27 season, closing an eight-year run in Los Angeles that included the 2020 NBA title, per NBA.com's report on the move. It adds another unresolved variable to the Lakers' summer alongside the Kennard departure and Hachimura's open status.

The moratorium lifts at noon Eastern on July 6, 2026. At that point, Kennard and the Suns can formally execute the reported two-year, $13 million arrangement, with the second season held as a player option, per the Associated Press.