Los Angeles Lakers: Three biggest questions heading into next season
By Jason Reed
1. Will the Los Angeles Lakers improve at free throw shooting?
Many think that the Los Angeles Lakers are going to struggle next season due to the lack of three-point shooting around LeBron James. While the Lakers do not have a Kyle Korver to bank on, the team actually has some decent three-point shooters and that should not be a problem whatsoever for the team.
However, where the Lakers really did struggle at last season was shooting the ball from the free throw line. LeBron James is not a prolific free throw shooter himself, either, and the pieces the Lakers added do not help the cause drastically.
This is a huge concern as the Lakers may experience a teamwide issue of purposely getting fouled late in games to shoot from the charity stripe. Until the team can prove to be efficient from the free throw line, this becomes the best way to defend the Lakers down the stretch of a close game.
James is a career 73.9 percent shooter from the free throw line. That is not a great number and the Lakers only had four players last season who played at least 40 games shoot higher from beyond the arc. Two of which are not even on the team, Jordan Clarkson and Tyler Ennis.
The Lakers ranked dead last in free throw shooting last year. Lonzo Ball shot 45.1 percent, Brandon Ingram shot 68.1 percent, Kyle Kuzma shot 70.7 percent and Josh Hart shot 70.2 percent.