As his career has progress, Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James has continued to improve his game. This season, he's made great strides in becoming a premier volume shooter from the 3-point line.
But it seems as though his running mate Anthony Davis isn't all that convinced quite yet. The 27-year-old places the King 3rd among the Lakers' shooting pecking order:
Anthony Davis on where LeBron ranks on the best shooters list on the team: “I’d put Bron 3rd.”
— Ryan Ward (@RyanWardLA) January 16, 2021
The case for LeBron James is a solid one. The King is taking and making the most number of threes on the team at 2.5 makes on 6.4 attempts per contest. That gives him a superb 38.6% shooting clip, which is his best percentage since his 2012-13 year with the Miami Heat but on double the volume.
However given the defensive attention James receives, his threes clearly come under the most duress compared to his other teammates that actually receive pinpoint passes from James. If only LeBron James could pass to himself, he might be north of 40%.
But a closer look shows that Davis is most likely right to place the King outside the top 2. In fact, he may have even been a tad generous with the ranking. The Lakers are currently being paced by Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who's knocking down threes at an absurd 53.1% rate. The puts KCP not just as the best shooter on the team, but top 5 in the entire NBA. Second on the team is Alex Caruso, who's also shooting the lights out whenever he gets the chance. Had the Carushow not missed a couple of games, his 52.8% clip would have qualified for the top 10 league-wide.
Both Anthony Davis and Wesley Matthews are also shooting at a better clip than LeBron, at 39.4% and 41.0%, respectively. All four of James' Lakers teammates make north of one per game as well, meaning these aren't empty shooting stats.
But at the end of the day, LeBron James probably wouldn't have it any other way. Los Angeles has an embarrassment of riches when it comes to long-range shooting. Having his teammates shooting better than him has carried the Los Angeles Lakers to the third best 3pt shooting percentage in the entire NBA.
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