1. Some shooting woes
The last thing I want to talk about is shooting. I’m not even going to get into free throw shooting because that’s just open a floodgate of anger and confusion. Let’s talk about where the NBA is going now, 3-point shooting!
We are 21st in the league in 3-point shooting percentage and barring a trade or random turn of events from one of our guards, we aren’t going to rise much higher in that category. You know something is wrong when Rajon Rondo is leading the team in 3P% (I mean no offense to him but it’s no secret he doesn’t prefer shooting).
What confuses me is they aren’t taking and missing bad, contested 3’s. The team is missing wide open, out of the offense 3’s. I just don’t get why these shots aren’t being knocked down.
Lonzo Ball looks like he’s more comfortable taking a step back contested three than a wide-open catch and shoot corner three. Ingram barely averages 2 attempts a game. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope is literally the definition of streaky. It seems like the most consistent 3-point shot is LeBron stepping back from 30+ feet from the hoop. I don’t like it at all and the worst part is I have no clue what we can do to change it.
I thought the team should have tried to acquire Kyle Korver from the Cleveland Cavaliers for something cheap. At least he’s a former All-Star who knows how to move without the ball, has played with LeBron, and is one of the best knockdown shooters of the last decade.
However, that opportunity was missed as Korver was traded to the Utah Jazz. Other than Korver, any other knockdown shooter we want is going to cost too much or not worth it in the scheme of things.
All in all, it is still early in the year so there should be no reason anyone should be talking about hitting the panic button and trading everyone. Even LeBron said it the other day, we knew what we were getting into before the season started with this roster. Players are still searching for their roles which are expected when you have a player like LeBron joining the team.
Give it another month at least and let’s see where we are at. But i thin that the Lakers so far this season can be accurately summed up in one statement: Good, not great.