LA LAKERS

I've noticed in the past couple games there have been times where he's been nailing the long two / mid range (despite the fact that the shot still looks weird and has no arc) and wanted to check if the numbers bear that out. Turns out it does.

According to basketball reference, he's shooting 40% on shots from 10-16 feet (league average is 40.4%). So a tiny bit below on those shots but a bigger percentage of his shots are coming between 16 feet and the 3 point line where he's knocking down a whopping 54.5% (league average is 39.6%).

Both are huge improvements from last season (he was shooting 22% and 25% respectively from those ranges) and together they account for 17% of his shot attempts so it's not totally fluky though the 54% is probably unsustainable. Another caveat is that all of his attempts are wide open but this seems pretty promising especially for him eventually stretching out to three point range. Thought it was interesting especially since it seems the perception from both fans and media that he still has no J and needs to develop it.