One clear emphasis for the Los Angeles Lakers at the trade deadline was adding some outside shooting with the team currently ranking 26th out of 30 teams from beyond the arc at 33.9%.
Malik Beasley is one of the new additions that should help with that as he is a career 38% 3-point shooting and is shooting 35.9% on 8.6 attempts per game this season.
It seems to be a match made in heaven for the Lakers, and Beasley expressed excitement to be in L.A. at his introductory press conference:
“That’s I’m about to be with the LakeShow, it’s about to be a show out here. Got to be ready to play, got to be locked in on and off the court. I’m excited to do that and get an opportunity to show who I can be.”
While understanding it will take some time to adjust, Beasley is happy to provide the Lakers with the outside shooting they desperately need:
“Definitely gonna be adjustments but I’m excited to be a Laker. I’m excited to bring some shooting to the table and defend and make a playoff run.”
Shooting is something that head coach Darvin Ham has already communicated to Beasley that he will be doing a lot of even if they haven’t talked about exact roles yet:
“We haven’t talked about exact role yet, but I know for sure that he wants me to shoot. That was one of the first things he said, ‘I need you to shoot that ball and make some shots’ and that’s what I’m gonna do. I’m gonna put in the work and learn the system really fast and get adjusted to this different life and be ready to go starting tomorrow.”
In addition to Beasley, the Lakers also brought in another solid shooter in D’Angelo Russell as well as a pair of bigs that can stretch the floor a bit in Jarred Vanderbilt and Mo Bamba.
That could be the ingredient to get the Lakers back into playoff contention, according to Beasley:
“I’ve been in the West my whole career so I know what it takes. If we go on a five-game win streak, we’re back in the standings. Everything is still tight, all we got to do is get into the playoffs and we can go from there. We got LeBron, we got AD, we a lot of new guys, DLo, we can all take over and make the right plays to put us in a position to win.”
At 25-31, the Lakers have a lot of work to do and not a lot of time to do it, although it looks like they finally have the right pieces in place to make a run.
Russell thinks of Kobe Bryant when he reflects on first tenure with Lakers
This trade marked a reunion for the Lakers and Russell, who was drafted by the team second overall in 2015. When asked to reflect on his first tenure in L.A., Russell says Kobe Bryant and being a teammate with the Lakers legend is the first thing that comes to mind.
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