The Golden State Warriors most recent 130-104 victory over the Sacramento Kings on Thursday night extended the team’s winning streak to six games while improving their record to 38-28.
Their dominant outing also became a memorable one in franchise history, as four-time NBA champion and two-time league MVP Stephen Curry became the first player in league history to knock down 4,000 career three-pointers.
Though the group looks to be in great position to earn a guaranteed postseason berth with a rejuvenated Curry and the continued excellence of Jimmy Butler, it’s plausible to believe that Golden State’s general manager Mike Dunleavy could already be planning to execute several key personnel changes this offseason.
In fact, it could be inferred that Dunleavy may want to further surround the NBA’s all-time leader in made threes with a historically accurate shooter this summer.
He could do so by negotiating a contract with soon-to-be unrestricted free agent and current Memphis Grizzlies guard Luke Kennard.
At 28 years old, Kennard has proven to be one of the league’s greatest pure three-point shooting talents.
The 6-foot-5 flamethrower currently leads the entire league in three-point percentage (46.4%) while contributing 9.7 points and 3.4 assists for the Grizzlies.
Kennard has built quite the resume in his first eight seasons, as his ridiculous 44.1% lifetime clip from long-range places him second all-time on the NBA’s career leaderboard, right behind Golden State head coach Steve Kerr’s figure of 45.4%.
During the 2022-23 season, he made more history by breaking Memphis’ franchise record for most threes made in a single game, when he knocked down 10 of his 11 attempts from distance in a blowout 151-114 rout of the Houston Rockets.
Plenty of front offices around the Association have subscribed to the idea that there’s no such thing as too much three-point shooting in this modern era, and the thought of pairing Kennard with the tandem of Curry and Buddy Hield may be exactly what Dunleavy has in mind.
The main concern with this potential acquisition would be regarding his evident defensive struggles, but Kennard has done the work to address those issues by boasting a 0.1 defensive box plus-minus in 2024-25.
On the offensive end, there’s little doubt that he could be integrated into Kerr’s free-flowing system predicated on off-ball movement, constant screening and cutting with relative ease.
In this hypothetical scenario, Kennard joining Curry and Butler for the 2025-26 season could lead to him becoming an integral piece of a contending Warriors team in the near future.
More NBA: Steph Curry drops special-edition “Pisces” sneaker for his 37th birthday, and the theme is water
