Los Angeles Lakers: 3 Ways Markieff Morris can help the team

3-Point shooting

In the final season of the Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka partnership, one attribute was coveted more than anything.

Playmaking.

The Lakers picked up as many playmakers as they could in free agency that season. This was considered an odd move by NBA experts. The league had clearly moved towards a 3-point orientated game and the Lakers went against current NBA wisdom and rolled with their group of rough and tough playmakers.

And it worked……. terribly. The Lakers were terrible from 3-point land and ended up a lottery team.

With Magic Johnson no longer in the building, General Manager Rob Pelinka has reverted back to the league-wide trend and trusted method of having 3-point shooters on the roster and so far so good.

With the addition of Markieff Morris, the purple and gold get a power forward/center capable of making 3-point shots. With Kyle Kuzma under-performing at power forward position, having Morris and his scorching 39.7% 3-point shooting ready to go could be a Godsend for a team in dire need of bench scoring.

With Markieff’s ability to play the 5, he can step out to the 3 -point line and allow his power forward to do some damage in the paint, whether that is Anthony Davis, Kyle Kuzma or LeBron James. This gives these players additional floor spacing and with his high percentage 3-point shooting they cannot leave him wide open around the 3-point line, making the paint less congested and in turn, allow for his power forward to eat their opponents alive in the paint.

If Markieff Morris can continue to hit the 3-point shot at the rate he currently is doing now, the Los Angeles Lakers will be more than happy to throw the ball in his direction and reap the benefits.

While Morris’ stats so far this season are nothing special, he has been playing on a Detroit Pistons team that seems to not know what to do with their roster and in turn, the effort and product on the court have been at a low level.

With Morris now part of a championship roster, we might see a spike in production from Morris across the board.