Luke Kennard was brought to the Hawks for one key reason - his incredible shooting. Ironically, to start the year, that's been precisely his worst category.
Kennard has opened the year shooting a dismal 2/10 from three point range. While the sample size certainly isn't anything to write home about, the minutes that Kennard has been on the floor have been less than productive, in large part due also to his less-than-stellar defensive efforts.
Kennard has never been a positive defender throughout his career - simply put, he doesn't need to be. When you're a 44% long-range shooter, you could practically be a traffic cone on defense and still be a positive asset to your team.
When this shooting disappears, however, your team will run into problems, and that's exactly where Atlanta finds itself at present.
The loss against OKC saw Kennard shoot 1/4 from deep - far from the single reason they lost the game (in fact, this can almost entirely be chalked up to being bereft of three key starters), but it certainly played a non-zero part.
Having started a suboptimal 1-2 (headlined by a shocking blowout loss at home to the presumably average Toronto Raptors), the Hawks are looking for answers as to what can change, and they're looking fast. If something doesn't change soon, the Hawks may find themselves in a hole early on in the year in the Eastern Conference standings - completely out of left field from where they thought they'd be.
Thankfully, Kennard's past starts to seasons throughout his career suggests that his shooting will be on the rise soon enough.
Despite Kennard's slow start, history suggests fans have little to worry about
While the slow shooting start for Cool Hand Luke isn't what fans were hoping for, it's also not incredibly out of the ordinary for the league-best shooter.
Kennard's 43.8% three point success rate sees a whopping 6.6% dip down to a very mundane 37.2% across his opening three games in his career each season. While some players come out of a summer shooting the lights out, Luke historically just hasn't been that kind of guy.
With this unusual dip in percentage in mind, Hawks fans should expect Kennard's shooting to continue to see its usual uptick as the season progresses. In turn, the floor will continue to open wide up for the rim attackers in Trae Young, Jalen Johnson, and others, and the Hawks' offense will begin to round into form.