Los Angeles Lakers: Will newcomers improve the team’s 3-point shooting?

Analyzing key additions for the Los Angeles Lakers

While the Lakers have lost the valuable shooting of Green, Bradley, and to a lesser degree Rondo, the team’s newcomers should replace some, if not all of it. Montrezl Harrell will contribute in plenty of areas, but given he went 0-18 from distance last season, 3-point shooting won’t be one of them. Each of Dennis Schroder, Wesley Matthews and Marc Gasol should be able to provide some long-range punch, however. In particular, the trio has shown the capacity to hit catch-and-shoot looks. With LeBron James and Anthony Davis drawing significant defensive attention, there should be plenty of these shots to go around.

Dennis Schroder

Schroder hit 38.5 percent of his 3-pointers with the OKC Thunder last season, including a solid 41.4 percent of his catch-and-shoot attempts. While his notable improvement from long-range compared to prior years is certainly encouraging, it’s fair to wonder whether the guard will revert closer to his career 33.7 percent clip in 2020-21. Schroder’s shot is a bit funky-looking (slow release), and while all that matters is the end result, this is another reason to anticipate some shooting regression.

The 6’1″ guard is expected to take over some of Rajon Rondo’s ball-handling responsibilities and is a capable pick-and-roll player. While he’s more of a threat to hit an off-the-dribble three than Rondo, it’s the mid-range where he’s been the most dangerous. While Schroder only made 26.8 percent of his pull-up threes last season (28.7 percent and 29.5 percent two years prior), he made 117 of 243 pull-up mid-range jumpers (48.1 percent).

Only nine players last season 1) made at least 100 pull-up mid-range shots and 2) hit at least 45.0 percent of their attempts, and Schroder was among them. He shot the 4th-best percentage of this group, while his (now former) teammate Chris Paul was first in both makes and efficiency (157 and 54.0 percent respectively).

Wesley Matthews

While Matthews’ 3-point shooting saw a slight dip last season with the Milwaukee Bucks, he’s been a capable and consistent shooter over his 11-year career. The Marquette alum has shot better than 38.0 percent in seven of eleven seasons and never finished below 36.0 percent. While the 34-year-old’s best shooting days might be behind him, he should provide a capable 3-point threat for the Lakers next season. Whereas Schroder takes his share of off-the-dribble threes, Matthews will operate more exclusively as a catch-and-shoot threat.