Los Angeles Lakers: Buy or sell three early season trends
Three-point Shooting
The Los Angeles Lakers are shooting 39 percent from deep through their first four games of the new season, good for 6th in the league and a stark contrast from last season when the Purple and Gold averaged a lowly 35 percent from three-point range (21st in the NBA).
Can the Lakers continue to shoot well from beyond the arc, or is this a small sample size mirage?
This question doesn’t have a black and white answer. Some stats jump off the screen and shout out the Lakers’ early-season three-point success is a stroke of shooting luck, while other crucial numbers show the Lakers could finish the season inside the top-10 in long-distance shooting.
Let’s delve in.
One of the most efficient plays in the NBA is an open three-point attempt (preferably from the corner) off a drive and kick or a swing pass—unfortunately, the Lakers haven’t been producing these types of long-distance field goal attempts as regularly as we’d like to see. After four games, only 78 percent of the Lakers’ three-point field goals have come off an assist (22nd in the NBA).
Instead, the Purple and Gold have been averaging nine pull-up three-point shots per game, and as a whole, they’ve been hitting 43 percent of those attempts–an unsustainable number.
Kyle Kuzma, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, and Alex Caruso have also seen huge jumps in their three-point percentages this season versus last.
Kyle Kuzma:
- 2020: 31 3P%
- 2021: 48 3P%
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope
- 2020: 39 3P%
- 2021: 50 3P%
Alex Caruso
- 2020: 33 3P%
- 2021: 50 3P%
Kuzma, KCP, and Caruso won’t continue to knock down this many shots from beyond the arc. Still, there’s reason to believe they will shoot much better than last year because they are getting high-quality looks from deep. Almost all their three-point attempts are coming off a pass, and between the three of them, they are averaging seven wide open (no player within 6 feet) three-point shots per game.
As a whole, the Lakers are averaging an incredible 18 wide-open three-point attempts per game. Those wide-open looks aren’t a small sample size blip either. The Purple and Gold now have five players—LeBron, Davis, Schroder, Kuzma, and Harrell—who consistently drag defenders into the lane when they attack the rim, and all five players have shown that when things get congested down low, they are willing passers.
All-in-all, the Lakers won’t keep making close to half of their pull-up three-point attempts, but they will continue to generate wide-open shots from deep throughout the season.
We have to buy the Los Angeles Lakers early three-point success.
The Purple and Gold should finish inside the top-10 in three-point shooting this season.