It’s obvious that the Los Angeles Lakers are a bad three-point shooting team. But it’s not because they lack talent. It’s because of how their offense is built. Despite having elite scorers, this team consistently ranks close to the bottom of the league in shooting. This needs to be fixed moving forward if they want to be a true contender.
Difficult Attempts
Shooting comes and goes, even among the most elite shooters. But what can remain consistent is the quality of shots you’re taking. The Lakers’ issue is that their three-point attempts are usually of the bad variety.
Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves lead the offense as the primary ballhandlers. But so far this season, they haven’t been creating the best looks for their teammates or themselves.
Most of their attempts come from pull-ups, step-backs, and late-clock shots. Luka alone averages over ten three-point attempts per game, but rarely are those catch-and-shoot looks. Most are self-created, contested, and off the dribble. Those shots are inherently inefficient, even for great shooters.
When your two primary perimeter threats specialize in difficult attempts and account for over half of the team’s three-point volume, you’re almost guaranteed to have ugly percentages.
Compared to Good Shooting Teams
The best three-point shooting teams in the NBA don’t rely on shooting brilliance alone. They rely on attacking the defense.
Teams like Denver, Houston, and Minnesota consistently generate high-quality threes by getting the defense to collapse. They drive, post, and force rotations.
The Lakers don’t do this consistently enough. Too many possessions start and end on the perimeter. When there isn’t much penetration, kick-out threes turn into rushed or contested shots.
Streaky Shooters
Part of the issue is definitely personnel and a lack of shooting talent. This roster is filled with streaky shooters—and streaky shooters need structure.
Guys like Marcus Smart, Gabe Vincent, and Jake LaRavia are all capable of hitting open threes. But they also go through cold stretches. Players like these need to be put in advantageous positions in order to succeed. You can’t expect role players to be in rhythm without consistent touches or movement.
Rui Hachimura is their only knockdown shooter, and he’s had a good year so far. But most of his success came before LeBron’s return. Now he’s playing out of position and is getting fewer looks. Role players need to be put in positions to succeed, and right now, his spot in the starting lineup seems clunky.
The Solution
Adding better shooters will obviously help the Lakers. Every team could use more shooting. Adding a reliable guard who can both drive and punish defenses for helping would raise the floor of the entire offense. But personnel changes aren’t the only solution, and there’s no guarantee that those changes will be made.
The Lakers first need to find their solution internally. First figure out how to penetrate the defense and create more high-quality looks consistently. Place greater emphasis on getting into the paint and offensive rebounding rather than probing around the perimeter. They could implement more post-up plays through LeBron and more off-ball actions to free Luka into attacking opportunities.
The Bottom Line
The Lakers are a bad three-point shooting team because of how their offense is run. They take too many difficult threes and ask streaky shooters to play without rhythm. This isn’t about luck. It’s about design. Until that changes, the Lakers will be seeing similar results.
