What do the Lakers need?

Aloha,

Of course that is a question that hasn’t been answered because of injuries. I do question our need for a shooter, especially one that doesn’t defend. Of course the dream is a volume 3 point shooter to keep defenses honest.

There is one big problem. The Lakers do not run plays to generate 3 point looks like the Warriors or other 3 point heavy teams. The Lakers generate 3’s from penetration or whipping the ball around the perimeter looking for the open man. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to matter how good of a shooter the open man is. (Remember Westbrook?)

Now we already have DLO. He is shooting.418% from 3 on 5.5 shots per game. That is very good. Can you remember a play they have ran to get him a 3 point look? I can’t. Rui shoots 41% from 3 on a little under 3 shots per game. We have not ran plays for him either.

Our biggest problem shooting from 3 is proven 3 point shooters, not making open shots. Prince is shooting 32%. Austin 31% and Wood a terrible 26%. These were guys we were counting on. Even though Vincent has played only 4 games, he made just one 3 pointer.

As long as we have AD and LeBron, that 3rd scorer will not make a huge difference. Love it or hate it, LeBron has always looked to find the open man, no matter who he is. I just don’t see the Lakers changing the entire offense to accommodate a 3rd scorer. When you consider how much we would need to land say LaVine, we would probably be worse off. Not only has DLO been playing better defense, he also scores17 a game and 6.4 assist to only 1.9 turnovers. Thats very good. LaVine wouldn’t bring much more than that. Zach by the way has 3.4 assists a game and 2 turnovers. It’s just not shooting that matters. And Rui is our best reserve to get LeBron rest. And he would be gone as well.

The fix? Simple, we have several guys that are much better shooters then they have shown so far. They just need to make their shots.