During the Los Angeles Lakers’ playoff run last season, they ran out of steam when matched up with the eventual champion Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference Finals. Denver simply had more scoring and shooters than L.A., making shooting a priority in free agency to be able to contend for a championship.
A signing that the Lakers made to help in 3-point shooting was Taurean Prince and his shooting to begin the year was not ideal. With a team that features LeBron James and Anthony Davis, they need spacing for them to operate, but Prince, among others, struggled to shoot from distance.
Thankfully, the law of averages has come around and Prince has found himself in a nice rhythm, shooting 51.9% from 3 from Nov. 22 to Dec. 13. Austin Reaves was also someone who experienced shooting struggles as well this year, but he shared that instilling confidence in Prince despite his struggles was a factor in finding his shot, as seen on Spectrum SportsNet:
“That’s basketball. I’ve spoken about it a million times. In all the sports, you go through times where you can’t hit the ball or you can’t seem to make a shot. Whatever sport it is, you go through your ups and downs and the whole message to him was that we’re not gonna stop passing it to you. I remember Bron and AD telling him that at a game at home, I can’t remember which game it was. But they were like ‘look, I don’t care if you miss 50 in a row, we’re still gonna pass it to you and have confidence in you to make the next one.’ And he’s gotten in a really good shooting rhythm. I say a really good shooting rhythm, but that’s just what he does. True professional. Works on his craft, even better dude. So you always want to see guys like that be successful.”
The struggles were apparent in the first part of the season from Oct. 30 through Nov. 10 when Prince was 6-for-37 from distance, which is a lowly 16.2%. But, confidence plays a huge factor in a shooter’s success and it is good to see that Reaves, Davis and James had his back during his shortcomings.
Prince is going to be a big part of what the Lakers want to do this year as he has maintained his starting spot through 23 games, when healthy. Notoriously when above-average 3-point shooters join the Lakers, they struggle, but Prince’s hot shooting has brought his 3-point percentage to 38.7 on 4.8 attempts, a good sign for L.A.
Prince sets goal of shooting 40% from 3-point range
When signing with the Lakers in free agency, Prince set a goal for himself to shot 40% from the 3-point line. As his struggles were apparent at the beginning of the year, he is now shooting 38% from 3, inching closer to his goal.
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