Ranking all 25 Duke basketball players in the NBA this season

Duke basketball legend Zion Williamson (Photo by Lance King/Getty Images)
Duke basketball legend Zion Williamson (Photo by Lance King/Getty Images)
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Duke basketball
Former Duke basketball sharpshooter Luke Kennard, now with the Detroit Pistons (Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images)
  • Games played this season: 28
  • Games started this season: 25
  • Minutes per game: 32.9
  • Points per game: 15.8
  • Rebounds per game: 3.5
  • Assists per game: 4.1
  • Blocks per game: 0.2
  • Steals per game: 0.4
  • FG percentage: 44.2
  • 3-point percentage: 39.9
  • FT percentage: 89.3

Sticking with the sniper theme, Luke Kennard is exactly that. The 6-foot-5, 205-pound former five-star scoring machine out of Ohio has either matched or slightly exceeded expectations less than three years after becoming the 12th overall pick at the 2017 NBA Draft.

This season, before bilateral knee soreness forced him out of action just before Christmas — he hasn’t played since but is likely to soon return — Kennard was firing on all cylinders for the Detroit Pistons, who recently nixed a rumored trade that would have sent the 23-year-old to the Phoenix Suns.

The former two-year Duke basketball player (2015-17) hit three or more 3-pointers in exactly half of his 28 outings this season. And based on his progressions from one season to the next in Durham and now Detroit, the silky lefty may just be heating up his career.