Los Angeles Lakers will be one of the best 3-point shooting teams

The Los Angeles Lakers were the second-worst 3-point shooting team in the NBA last season, but their new acquisitions should catapult them to one of the best this season.

In 2018-19 the Los Angeles Lakers were not a very good 3-point shooting team, and they lacked many floor spacing options to help open up the floor. They spent this offseason going out and finding guys who can hit from the 3-point area and they found some of the best on the market in doing so.

Last season the Lakers finished as the second-worst 3-point shooting team in basketball at 33.3% on 31 attempts per game, which was the 17th most in the league. The only team they finished better than was the Phoenix Suns at 32.9%, who attempted 29.3 3-pointers per night.

Lance Stephenson, who has never been known as a consistent 3-point shooter, led the way at 37.1% on 2.9 attempts per night. But if we dig deeper to find a qualified leader of the team in 3-point attempts, you’d find Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who converted 34.7% of his attempts from deep on 5.3 attempts per night. However, KCP’s career average of 34.5% is around average.

So when looking at the big picture, you will see that the Lakers were very bad from long range as many of their top players were sub 34%. James was 33.9%, Josh Hart was 33.6%, Brandon Ingram was 33%, Lonzo Ball was 32.9% and Kuzma was 30.3%.

James thrives when he has shooters to kick out too, so it is no surprise why the Lakers struggled at times to get buckets because the floor became so jammed up without 3-point shooters.

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Enter Danny Green, Troy Daniels, Quinn Cook and Jared Dudley, four of the Lakers signings in a busy offseason. All four of them are above 39% shooting from 3-point range in their careers. Three of them are north of 40% and the one that isn’t is Dudley, who still is at 39.2% for his career. So, it is easy to see that the Lakers took a drastic turn in improving that area.

When looking over the trajectory of his career, James has excelled the most with teams that have shooters for him to find. Ray Allen and Kyle Korver were two great examples that James could have the ball in his hands and know where those guys were at all the time. He didn’t have that luxury last season and it showed.

The Lakers will have a drastic improvement in the 3-point shooting department and they will move from second-worst in the NBA to at least a top 10 team. It’s not stressed enough the job Rob Pelinka did to bring in the amount of depth that he did. Striking out on Kawhi Leonard will prove to be a successful plan B for the team even though many fans would likely disagree.

Green will be one of the best 3-point shooters in the league. Daniels and Dudley won’t get a ton of playing time but they can both catch and shoot when needed and Cook will be there in case Rondo or Caruso is hurt or struggling. KCP should improve upon his numbers in a better offense, Kuzma can only go up from where he is and James is around where he’s usually been for his career.

The Lakers will improve their nightly mark from 33.3% to 36.5%, which would have put them at No. 7 in the NBA for the 2018-19 season. They will have an uptick in the 31 attempts per night as well as I see them getting up to about 37 per night with more guys launching from three.

Overall this is the biggest improvement the Lakers could be making this upcoming season compared to last. It will translate to a higher offensive rating and more points. It will also help James get back to his comfort level on the court with a team that is built to play to his strengths.