When Anthony Davis is consistently making jumpers, he — and the Los Angeles Lakers — are virtually unstoppable. Unfortunately, that hasn't happened since the bubble, resulting (among other factors) in mid-tier halfcourt offenses over the past few seasons and up-and-down offensive box scores from AD.

Austin Reaves, however, is optimistic. During a podcast appearance with ESPN's Zach Lowe, the Lakers guard revealed that the Lakers conducted their annual, LeBron James-led minicamp last weekend in San Diego. He only shared a few details about the excursion — the Lakers enjoyed a team dinner, had 100% attendance rate, and mainly worked on foundational sets — but he made a point to mention the state of Davis' jumper.

“Everybody looked good,” said Reaves. “We did a lot of shooting competition stuff. AD's shooting the ball really well right now. It's something that I've tried to get him to do more is, shoot it. If he does that at a very decent level — which he can because in the bubble year he shot it really well — literally you can't guard him. … I think he'll shoot the ball a lot better this year, and I think he'll have more attempts.”

In the 2020 playoffs, Davis shot 57.7% (!) on jumpers from 15-19 feet and 38.3% from 3 as the Lakers rolled to the championship. Heading into the next season, Frank Vogel said he wanted Davis to take up to five threes per game, although Davis' inconsistency rendered that counter-productive. AD shot 34.0% on 15-19 footers and 26.0% from 3 in 2020-21. He made just 18.6% from his 3s in 2021-22 and 25.7% last season.

If LeBron James struggles once again from the outside — he shot 32.1% in 2022-23, his worst mark in 20 years — Davis' ability to space out will be all the more critical. On the other hand, the presences of Reaves, D'Angelo Russell, Gabe Vincent, Taurean Prince, Christian Wood and others should produce the Lakers' best three-point shooting squad since the title team.