Luke Kennard received a DNP-CD – zero minutes while healthy – for the first time this season in Friday night’s loss to the Miami Heat. To make matters worse, Quin Snyder’s decision to bench the Hawks’ new sharpshooter comes in spite of injury troubles that have plagued Atlanta’s perimeter rotation.
Kennard is one of the best shooters in the NBA, but he has a head-scratching tendency of not shooting the ball enough. Through 28 games in a Hawks uniform, Kennard is shooting the 10th most threes per 100 possessions. If Kennard isn’t making a significant impact as a shooter, what is the point of playing him?