The Los Angeles Lakers are well on their way to the start of the 2023-24 season. Los Angeles has five of six preseason games in the books as the team prepares to start a long journey that will begin in Denver against the defending NBA Champions on October 24.
The Lakers played their fifth preseason game on Sunday against the Milwaukee Bucks and despite the loss, there was plenty for fans to be excited about. A depleted Lakers team that was without four impactful rotation players kept up with a Bucks team that ran out Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard for the first time.
Anthony Davis was the sole reason why the Lakers put together a good showing as he went toe-to-toe with Giannis in what could be a fun NBA Finals preview. This continues a very strong preseason for Davis, who might be heading into his best season with the Lakers to date.
It has been all roses for Davis except for one thing: how Darvin Ham planned to use Davis in the season. Ham made the wild assertion that Davis should be taking as many as six threes per game, which naturally had fans worried considering he is not a good three-point shooter. Suddenly, fans were concerned that the Lakers would lean too heavily into the two big lineups and ask Davis to shoot more, which would naturally hurt the offensive efficiency.
Thankfully for those fans, Ham cleared up the confusion after the Bucks game by confirming that his “six threes per game” goal was not literal — it was simply meant to highlight that he wants AD to be aggressive.
Don’t read too much into the actual number with regards to Darvin Ham encouraging Davis to take 6 triples a night. It’s more about a mindset to look for his shot: “I just want him to be aggressive at all three levels.”
— Mike Trudell (@LakersReporter) October 16, 2023
Darvin Ham clears the Anthony Davis confusion for Lakers fans
There it is, folks! Ham isn’t literally asking Davis to nearly double his career-high three-point shot attempts per game. He simply wants his big man to be comfortable shooting the ball as that could add a new dynamic to the Lakers’ offense.
It is important, though, that Ham does not get married to this. In theory, Davis being able to space the floor more and knock down shots at a more consistent (and frequent) rate would be stellar for the purple and gold.
But basketball is played on the hardwood, not on paper. If Davis can’t get his shot to fall then the team can’t keep running him out there to fail. A great head coach conforms the team to his superstars and doesn’t force his superstars to try and conform to the rest of the team.
This is not the first time that there was a utopian plan for Davis to space the floor more. That was one of Frank Vogel’s main talking points heading into the 2020-21 season after Davis had an extremely effective season shooting the rock in the 2020 NBA Playoffs.
Davis would go on to shoot 26% from three that season and has not even been able to hit the 30% mark since then.