Lakers head coach Luke Walton, right, gives instructions to Brandon Ingram during a preseason game against the Kings at Honda Center on Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2016. (Photo by Kyusung Gong, Orange County Register/SCNG)
ONTARIO — His past job gave Luke Walton a first-hand look at a daily clinic that featured the Golden State Warriors mastering the 3-point shot.
Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson buried them seemingly anytime and anywhere they touched the ball. The Warriors created more open looks with crisp ball movement and balanced floor spacing. And with those ingredients staying consistent, Walton spent the past two years as a Warriors assistant seeing that team lead the league in both 3-point shots made and 3-point field-goal percentage.
Walton said he has not set any expectations for the Lakers in both 3-point attempts and shots made. After all, the Lakers’ young and developing roster can hardly draw comparisons to the Warriors.
Instead, Walton has outlined specific offensive principles he believes he elevate the Lakers’ outside shooting.
“The floor should be spaced with free-flowing ball movement going side-to-side. If you’re a shooter and you’re open, I want you to shoot it,” Walton said. “Whether they go in or not, a lot of times that’s out of our control as coaches. As long as you put the time and work in and it’s a shot within the rhythm of the offense and it’s not a forced 3-point shot, we’ll keep encouraging them to keep taking them.”
The Lakers (1-1) enter Sunday’s exhibition game against the Denver Nuggets (2-0) at Citizens Business Bank Arena ranked 21st out of 30 NBA teams in 3-point field goal percentage (32.1 percent). That’s only a small improvement from last season when the Lakers shot 31.7 percent from 3-point range, last in the NBA.
Former Lakers coach Byron Scott sparked criticism for downplaying the importance of the 3-point shot, though he contended his resistance had more to do with the Lakers’ roster and any resistance toward adapting to the modern NBA.
Could Walton’s past experience with Golden State fix the Lakers’ 3-point shooting woes? The Lakers sure hope so. But he hardly sounded consumed with how much that will represent the Lakers’ offense.
“Every team plays differently. There are teams where their main defensive philosophy is to take away the 3-point line. If that’s the case, I would hope you would game plan that we’re penetrating and looking to get into the paint and get 2-point shots,” Walton said. “I’m more of a believer of taking what the defense gives you. I’m sure it’ll change from game to game. It doesn’t matter to me how many we get up. As long as they’re good shots. If we get 30 3-point looks, let’s take 30 of them. If we only get 10, I’m fine with taking 10.”
It is far too early obviously to see how the Lakers execute that way. But Walton noted there have been times he called out players for passing up an open 3-pointer (Nick Young) or taking one unnecessarily (Julius Randle). Jordan Clarkson has also only shot 3-of-10 from 3-point range, while Lou Williams has gone 2-of-8. But Young (2-of-4), Anthony Brown (2-of-3) and D’Angelo Russell (4-of-10) have emerged as potential threats.
“He’s constantly trying to become more of an all around player,” Walton said of Russell. “He’s aggressive when he’s at his best. He’s trying to figure out when he should look to score and look to get teammates involved. I stay on him that when he’s open, we want him shooting the ball. But we also want him to move. We don’t want possessions where he comes down and no one touches the ball and he takes a shot with no rhythm. He’s continuing to work on that and ask questions and watch film on that.”
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