{"id":716308,"date":"2026-06-20T22:52:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T22:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/716308\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T22:52:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T22:52:09","slug":"lakers-interested-in-bringing-back-marcus-smart-luke-kennard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/716308\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakers interested in bringing back Marcus Smart, Luke Kennard"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">While this summer has long been circled as one of change for the Lakers, the list of players they\u2019re interested in retaining from last year\u2019s roster is growing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Even on the heels of a second straight 50-win season, the playoffs made it clear the Lakers, as currently constructed, are not close to contending for a title. It\u2019s with that in mind that an eyebrow might be raised at the multiple reports now indicating the team has interest in bringing players back from last year\u2019s team.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">In <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/story\/_\/id\/49098803\/the-five-biggest-questions-lakers-need-answer-offseason-lebron-james-austin-reaves-luka-doncic-nba-offseason-free-agency\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a recent article for ESPN<\/a>, Dave McMenamin reported that the Lakers are interested in re-signing two guards, and playoff heroes, from last season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup _1bij9g78 _1mt21p01\">The Lakers are interested in retaining Marcus Smart and sharpshooter Luke Kennard, sources told ESPN.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Now, all of this interest doesn\u2019t mean they have to bring these players back. And it\u2019s entirely possible, and perhaps likely, that their interest is dependent on other things happening or in the right situation. Maybe they have interest in bringing back Smart if he picks up his option. Or maybe they have interest in Kennard if they miss on some other targets first.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">In a vacuum, there are plenty of reasons to bring these players back. All of them, at some point or another, had a moment this season or even during the playoffs that helped the purple and gold win games.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">At the same time, both were exposed as the postseason went along. Kennard became less effective with each passing game. The limitations of Smart\u2019s game and the downsides of him being forced into such a prominent role were readily apparent against the Thunder, too.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Both are positive role players, but both have clear ceilings on how much they can contribute when the games really start mattering. And that\u2019s the problem present for the role players the Lakers reportedly have interest in retaining.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">How many of them can you envision playing in an NBA Finals? Or even the Western Conference Finals? That can\u2019t be the sole requirement for players the team signs, but it has to be part of the calculation, and not an insignificant part of it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">It\u2019s unlikely the Lakers are interested in bringing them all back as that would go against the whole idea of reshaping the roster this summer. But there should be some strong discussions about how many of them are worth re-signing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While this summer has long been circled as one of change for the Lakers, the list of players&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":716309,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[24072,355,99],"class_list":["post-716308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-lakers-rumors","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=716308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/716309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=716308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=716308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=716308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}