Duke basketball: Ranking all 27 Blue Devils in the NBA this season

Ranking Duke basketball’s NBA players this season: No. 10 Luke Kennard

• Age: 24
• Current team: Los Angeles Clippers (43-21)
• Games played this season: 57
• Games started: 15
• Season averages: 8.3 points, 2.7 rebounds, 1.7 assists, 0.4 steals, 0.2 blocks
• Shooting percentages: 47.9 from the field, 46.0 beyond the arc, 82.8 from the foul line

Granted, in what is his first campaign with the Los Angeles Clippers, Luke Kennard is barely averaging half the number of points he tallied per game last season with the Detroit Pistons, who had drafted the two-year Duke basketball sniper at No. 12 overall in 2017. But his 15.1 points per 36 minutes this season are basically on par with that stat in his previous three years as a pro.

And note that the 6-foot-5, 205-pound guard ranks No. 6 across the entire NBA this season in 3-point percentage while proving relatively durable after lacing ’em up only 28 times in 2019-20.

Besides, recognize that those 2019-20 Pistons finished with a 20-46 record; as for the 2020-21 Clippers, well, they’re currently only three games out of first place in the Western Conference standings. In other words, despite Kennard’s decrease in total production, his efforts in the coming weeks and months this year have major postseason implications.