Anthony Davis is truly one of the most complete and versatile basketball players on the planet. There is very little the big man can’t do on both sides of the basketball court, but one thing that seems to have regressed a bit, and something new Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick wants to see change, is his 3-point shooting.
Davis shot at least 33% from deep in three straight seasons from 2018-20 which includes his first season with the Lakers. But he has shot below 30% in each of the last four seasons with his attempts dwindling overall as he has shifted more towards dominating the paint playing the center position primarily.
But Redick has been in Davis’ ear all summer long and made it clear that he wants the big man to take more 3-pointers this season.
“Obviously we have one of the best shooters to ever play in our head coach, JJ,” Davis said at Lakers Media Day. “So he has been on me all summer about shooting 3s. Even in the Olympics when I would make a 3, he would text me and say that’s what I want to see and things like that. But for him, it’s definitely gonna be shooting more 3s. For me, I just try to work on everything. There’s northing in my game that I can’t polish or touch up so when I’m working out, I just try to hit every facet on my game.”
It makes a lot of sense that Redick would like to see Davis stretch his range out to the 3-point line a bit more regularly. Spacing in this era of the NBA is extremely important and Davis has the ability to help take the Lakers’ offense to another level if he can be a solid shooter from deep.
That becomes even more important with Davis wanting to play next to another true center more often and shift down to power forward. That could potentially crowd the paint on offense which the Lakers can’t afford to happen, but Davis providing a bit more shooting would help to counteract that.
Davis has shown the ability in the past, and the Lakers don’t need him to be a 40% shooter, though that certainly wouldn’t be a bad thing. But if Redick can get what he is looking for in Davis’ outside shooting, it would do wonders for the Lakers offense overall.
Lakers coach JJ Redick has a theory on Anthony Davis’ shooting struggles
Anthony Davis’ 3-point shooting has gone down over the past few seasons and JJ Redick has taken notice of it. The new Lakers coach even has a theory as to why that has happened, but wouldn’t reveal it.
At a recent press conference, Redick noted that he has a theory for what happened, though he wasn’t willing to reveal what that theory was. He did add however, that if it turns out to be true, he’ll open about it later.