3. Shoot at least 40 percent from 3-point range
Judging from what we saw last season, this might be the hardest of the goals I have for Lonzo. It’s no secret, Lonzo shot horrendously from downtown last season, an abysmal 30 percent. He was tremendously inconsistent throughout his rookie campaign.
Great shooters master muscle memory. Steph Curry’s jump shot is in his DNA now. Every time he shoots the ball it’s identical to the previous shot. Same form, same elevation, same follow-through.
At times, Lonzo looked like he was changing how he would shoot from shot-to-shot. Even his misses are inconsistent! Long, short, left, right, off the backboard, airballs. He misses every which way. It’s sloppy.
Maybe it’s a confidence thing, maybe it’s a lack of focus, maybe it’s even the form. Whatever it is, it needs to be fixed. Luckily for Lonzo, and Lakers fan everywhere, improving your jump shot isn’t the Mt. Everest of skill improvements. It requires time and persistence but is very doable.
If Brook Lopez can go from a 14.3 percent 3-point shooter to a 34.5 percent shooter in one offseason, there is absolutely no reason Lonzo can’t make the jump to 40 percent.
It’s not like we’re asking him to do something he has never done before. I mean, the kid shot 41.2 percent from the 3-point line in college. He knows how to shoot a basketball, although his form might say otherwise, it’s in his skill set, he just has to improve it.
The bright side: with the new and improved roster, Lonzo should have easier shots. He’ll be open more because, after the season he had, he most likely will be the guy that teams leave open to double-team players like Lebron and even Brandon Ingram. Which means all you have to do, Lonzo, is knock down open, uncontested, catch and shoot shots. Shouldn’t be too difficult, right?
Lonzo actually is better at spotting up than his numbers might show. In his time at UCLA, he was more efficient with spot ups than coming off ball screens or isolation plays. He ranked in the 95th percentile in spot-ups his lone year in college. They made up almost a fourth of his offense that season (23.1 percent) on a very talented UCLA team.
His rookie season was different though. He was no longer the captain of a top team, he was a rookie on a team deep into a rebuilding process with other young players and veterans on one-year deals looking to make their case for a long-term deal. Lonzo had to do more of creating his own shot, which led to the poor shooting percentage, resulting in low confidence.
He doesn’t have to do that this year. With the abundance of ball handlers the team has, he won’t be required to be the one running the pick and rolls or creating off isolations. He can let the best player in the world handle that while he finds open spots and cuts to the rim, which, if you haven’t watched him play, Lebron loves finding cutters. Let’s not forget the play that set up the historical J.R. Smith brain collapse in Game 1 of this year’s NBA Finals.
Lonzo shooting 40 percent from long range this season doesn’t seem like too much to ask. If he puts in the work that players going into their second season should, this should be a relatively simple task compared to something like, I don’t know, trying to avoid the amount of drama that comes with being Lavar’s Ball son.