Anthony Davis: A New 3-Point Threat for the Lakers

When JJ Redick joined the Lakers, he made it a point to prioritize improving their 3-point shooting.

The Lakers ranked near the bottom of the league in 3-point shooting percentage in the 2023-24 season, and hiring a head coach with a strong eye for analytics and also a 3-point specialist during his playing days seemed like a good measure to solve those problems.

No player on the roster has benefited more from the coaching change than Anthony Davis. The star big man is having a career-best season by several standards, and one stat that jumps off the page is how much Davis has improved as a 3-point threat.

Entering Monday, Davis is averaging a career-high 31.1 points per game while shooting 56.1% from the floor, 42.9% from 3-point range and 79.8% from the free-throw line. 

To put things into perspective, Davis made just 27.1% of his 3-pointers in 2023-24. His best season from beyond the arc came in 2017-18 when he was still playing for the New Orleans Pelicans where he made 34% of his 3-pointers. Davis is averaging 2.3 3-pointers this season, and while that’s nearly one attempt below his career-high mark, the efficiency nonetheless stands out.

Davis has been successful in choosing his deep shots.

His attempts have come almost exclusively from the middle of the court and the left-center area, where he’s averaging 50 and 46.2%, respectively. When shooting from the right-center area of the 3-point range, Davis has gone 1-for-4, and he missed the lone corner 3-pointer he attempted. 

It’s not so much about the results but the process Davis is doing to increase his efficiency from 3-point range.