The Los Angeles Lakers are currently scrambling to finalize their roster for the 2022-23 season. At this juncture, it’s anyone’s guess as to whether Russell Westbrook gets traded or Kyrie Irving arrives via trade, but the front office is hard at work regardless.
Fans are hoping the front office is working to rectify the Lakers’ biggest pitfalls from last campaign. While injuries to LeBron James and Anthony Davis ultimately derailed their season, Los Angeles’ inability to hit threes at an efficient (or even respectable) rate really made it a challenge to win games.
Thus far this offseason, however, the Lakers have done very little to address the roster’s lack of three-point marksman.
That’s extremely alarming, as LA’s current roster collectively knocked down threes at a lowly 32.5% clip last season. Only the Oklahoma City Thunder, who were evidently tanking for a high draft pick, posted a worse three-point percentage.
The combined 3P% for the #Lakers roster using last season's numbers (the season before for Kendrick Nunn, college for Max Christie) is 32.5%.
— Lake Show Life (@TheLakeShowLife) July 19, 2022
That would have been the second-lowest in the NBA last season, only ahead of the 24-58 OKC Thunder.
The Lakers need more three-point shooting on their roster.
It’s fair to assume the Lakers are aware of their need to become a bigger threat from beyond the arc. Between Eric Gordon, Buddy Hield and Coby White, who own a combined 37.8% three-point percentage in their careers, they’ve been linked with no shortage of players who can stroke it. Of course, there’s a big difference between targeting shooters and actually acquiring them to help LeBron and Davis.
It also doesn’t help LA lost its most prolific deadeye, Malik Monk, to free agency. In 76 games, Monk hit 39.1% of his threes. The next closest was Wayne Ellington at 38.9% and he only played 43 games. Behind him? Carmelo Anthony at 37.5%.
More damning, however, is the fact that five Lakers who averaged more than 20 minutes last season — Austin Reaves (31.7%), Stanley Johnson (31.4%), Russell Westbrook (29.8%), Talen Horton-Tucker (26.9%) and Davis (18.6%) — all shot worse than 32% on threes. The league average was 35.4%.
Bottom line? The Lakers are screwed if they don’t have more marksmen and nothing proves that more than this scary nugget.
Since 2010, there have been 24 teams that finished the season with a three-point percentage under 33% (see first tweet). Only five of them made the playoffs and just one made it out of the first round; the 2011-12 Lakers, who lost in Round 2. The combined record of those 24 teams is 664-1208, which averages out to a 29-53 pace over an 82-game schedule.
This obviously doesn’t mean the Lakers will finish 24 games below .500 next season — they still have two of the game’s top 10 players — but fans can all but rule out a deep playoff run, let alone another championship, if Los Angeles doesn’t add more floor-spacers.
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