Los Angeles Lakers: 3 ways to improve after the NBA trade deadline

Consistent 3-point accuracy

Throughout LeBron’s career, you could almost chart his team’s win-loss record by how well they shot 3-pointers from game to game.

So much of LeBron’s style is based on finding open shooters, and if those shots aren’t going down, usually he’s not the kind of takeover scorer to freeze out the bricklayers and drag his team to a win. He’s a natural playmaker and wired to keep giving his guys chances even when they’re cold.

That trend has mostly held true this season.

In half of L.A.’s 12 losses through Sunday, the team shot under 30 percent from 3-point range. The worst was the Jan. 25 loss at Philadelphia, where L.A. shot 19 percent (6-of-31) beyond the arc. In most of their wins, the team shoots a solid 3-point percentage.

Overall, the Lakers are 11th in the league in 3-point accuracy, making 36.3 percent of their tries.

A trade for Morris would’ve given L.A. a valuable stretch-4 who is hitting 43.9 percent of his 3-pointers this season.

Kuzma is supposed to be that floor-stretching power forward, and while he’s had his moments, overall he’s struggled to find his comfort zone with Davis and LeBron James dominating the offense.

Another issue is that some of the Lakers’ best shooters don’t play a lot. Troy Daniels, Quinn Cook and Jared Dudley have the skill, but none of them play more than 12 minutes per game.

If they’re not going to get more time on the court, and there’s no free-agency help on the way, the responsibility to make threes falls on L.A.’s most prolific gunners: LeBron, Danny Green, Kuzma and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope.