LAS VEGAS — It’s obvious that Jake LaRavia made adjustments to his jump shot during the offseason.
And they’re paying off so far, with the fifth-year wing entering Tuesday’s exhibition against the Warriors shooting 54.6% (6 of 11) on 3-pointers.
Coach JJ Redick mentioned that the 2022 first-round draft pick made three “very minor tweaks” to his jumper after he shot a career-low 32.1% on 3-pointers last season with the Lakers.
It’s clear that the Lakers forward is comfortable with those changes.
“From there, it just comes down to repetition,” Redick said. “And from repetition, you get confidence. That’s just the way shooting works: It’s form, repetition, confidence. It’s hard to have confidence without the first two. And it’s hard to have good repetitions if your form sucks.
“And it’s not that his form sucked, his form had a really good base. But he just made small tweaks. He shot the ball really well in practice. In our live play, we tracked all the stats throughout every practice we’ve had so far, he shot it well. He shot it well in games. So he’s in a great place offensively.”
What were the tweaks LaRavia made?
“Just my shooting pocket,” he said after Tuesday’s shootaround. “Just putting it a little bit more to the outside.”
This adjustment has been the most notable one.
“My release,” he added of a more subtle change.
The final one?
“Probably something else – I don’t know what it is,” he said of the final tweak. “I just do it. I have no idea.”
It’s probably a good sign he can’t remember the last tweak.
It shows how natural his new shooting motion is after years of shooting a certain way.
“To shoot the same way for your entire life and then tweak it in one offseason was not the easiest thing,” LaRavia said. “And I was able to change my shot in two weeks, but I didn’t get comfortable with it for like a month. And then after a month, it became more natural and now it’s just my new shot.”
