1. The Los Angeles Lakers need more consistent shooters around their stars
The three-point shot is more important than ever in the NBA and having quality shooters around LeBron James has always been a recipe for success. Despite that, the Lakers have gone backward and have not featured many great shooters around James over the last two years.
It worked out for multiple reasons last year. Not only were they the most talented team in the league (that might not be true anymore) but they got hot in the playoffs. Markieff Morris alone shot 42.1% in the playoffs, the third-highest mark in franchise history among players who took as many three-point shots as Morris.
LeBron James was the best shooter on this team and that was a problem. That is why the Lakers looked so terrible with Davis out. The old Cavaliers teams that LeBron carried at least had shooters that he could trust to make shots. This team did not.
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope is the team’s best shooter and he is as streaky as it gets. Dennis Schroder is not a great three-point shooter, Alex Caruso shoots fine in low volumes and Marc Gasol simply does not take that many.
Wesley Matthews was disappointing this season, Talen Horton-Tucker was really bad behind the three-point line and Montrezl Harrell is a complete non-factor from beyond the arc. This team desperately needs shooters to keep up.
If they had better shooters in Game 6 then they might have crept back into the game and maybe even won it. The Lakers made it interesting in the second half but at the end of the day could not hit the proper shots to fully come back.