The Los Angeles Lakers are officially in the thick of training camp and fans are getting the first glimpse of what the team will look like during the 2022-23 season. While this has not stopped the trade rumors from swirling, the focus right now should be on the upcoming season and how LA can maximize what they have.
There are several concerning aspects of this roster with the three-point shooting being front and center. Los Angeles does not have many great three-point shooters and to succeed in this league you need to be able to shoot the basketball.
Instead, the Lakers somehow got worse when it comes to the shooters on the roster and the floor spacing is going to suffer as a result. New head coach Darvin Ham is going to have to rely on some non-traditional players to shoot the basketball and it seems like he already has some candidates in his head.
One of those candidates is center, Damian Jones. Ham seemingly trusts Jones to be a three-point shooter for the Lakers, even going as far as to make a perplexing comparison for the big man.
After we saw Damian Jones take a corner 3, @jovanbuha asked if Darvin Ham about his confidence in Jones' range. He said he trusts Jones' shooting so far.
— Kyle Goon (@kylegoon) October 1, 2022
"If I have Robin Lopez making 3s, I’m sure I can make Damian Jones to make 3s."
Adds: "I love Robin. Miss you too, Brook."
Robin Lopez, eh? I would say that Ham might have confused the Lopez brothers, but he also brings up Brook, so I doubt that is what happened. Ham’s comments about Lopez making 3s certainly are… interesting, to say the least.
Darvin Ham’s Damian Jones comment makes no sense for the Lakers.
Lopez spent one season with Ham on the Milwaukee Bucks and you would have thought that he was a quality shooter based on Ham’s comment. That is not the case. In that lone season, Lopez shot 33.3% from beyond the arc in 1.6 attempts per game. To be fair, Lopez set a career-high in threes made that season, but it was only 0.5.
Is that what the Lakers are resorting to? Comparing one of the team’s potential three-point shooters to someone who notoriously is not a shooter that then shot the ball more with Ham, but still didn’t shoot it all that well?
Plus, it is not like Jones has much of a track record across a full season, either. Jones set a career-high last season in attempting 0.5 threes per game. He shot 34.5% in those attempts.
First, we heard about the team’s absurd role that they have in mind for Patrick Beverley. Now, we see the team acting like Jones is going to suddenly emerge as some kind of sharpshooter when nothing to this point indicates that will happen.
New free agent could be key to fixing Lakers’ wing problems
The Los Angeles Lakers do not have many wings on the roster but they could change that with this fresh new free agent that hit the market.
Are Lakers fans supposed to believe this? Do they actually believe this? If so, they are going to be in for a rude awakening once the 2022-23 season begins.