Though an extremely small sample size, through two games, the Lakers are leading the league in three point attempts per game at 34.5 a contest.
For a team with a coach who has been a steady opponent of the three point shot, it is surprising that through two games, the Los Angeles Lakers are leading the league in three pointers attempted. To put this in perspective, last year the Houston Rockets led the league with 32.7 three point attempts per game, converting 35 percent of them.
Today, to the delight of some, and the dismay of others, Baxter Holmes revealed steady insight on the Lakers’ recent three point explosion.
Earlier in the preseason, when asked about the three point shot, Coach Byron Scott revealed, “I don’t believe it wins championships. (It) gets you to the playoffs.”
Holmes quickly pointed out the irony in this statement saying that, “Eight of the last nine NBA champions led all playoff teams in 3-point attempts and makes.” Men lie. Women lie. Numbers don’t lie.
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Broken down to its simplest, the argument for shooting three pointers is as follows: making 33.3% of 3-point shots yields the same amount of points as making 50% of 2-point attempts.
Therefore, advocates say that a steady infusion of 3-point shots into a team’s offense can only benefit offensive production. Further, per Grantland (RIP), long shots set up long rebounds which Kirk Goldsberry deemed, “The Kobe Assist.”
Currently, the Lakers are shooting a horrid 29 percent from the three point line, placing them 24th overall.
When discussing his current position on the situation, Scott said:
"I just want us to make them if we’re going to be taking them. That’s the biggest thing. I think we’ve taken some that are ill advised. It seems to me that you’re almost falling in the trap of teams allowing you to shoot [them]. I think it gets us on our heels instead of really being in attack mode, and I want us to be in more of that attack mode on offense and not just settle as well.When you drive and you kick it and you step into a three, I love those shots. I love those shots. But sometimes we get those shots, sometimes we don’t. Sometimes it’s like there’s one pass and then a three. That’s not the shot that I love, because I think we can get that three with three or four more passes as well when we’re making the defense move a little bit."
The Los Angeles Lakers are currently at a crossroads with one foot heavily rooted in the past and the other foot desperately trying to escape into the future.
The organization has tried its best to embrace the inevitable — drafting D’Angelo Russell over an established big, making strides in their data analytics department, ramping up their injury prevention measures — so it was only just a matter of time until their game plan followed suit.
Though the Lakers’ three point renaissance should be viewed as a positive, the team must begin to convert these buckets for any of this to matter.
Next: Three Adjustments the Lakers Should Consider to Become Competitive
What do you think about the Lakers recent three point barrage? Let us know in the comments below.