Although Anthony Davis is already established as one of the best players in the NBA, Lakers head coach Darvin Ham believes he can be better. The second-year head coach said on Tuesday that he wants Davis to shoot as many as six three-pointers per game to try and expand his skillset.
That suggestion did not go over well with some people, including Stephen A. Smith. The ESPN analyst explained on First Take why Davis should stay away from increasing his three-point attempts.
“Anthony Davis’s career three-point percentage of 30% is the third worst amongst active players with a minimum of 1,000 attempts,” Smith said. “I’m not gonna side with Darvin Ham on that.”
Smith not only compared Davis to current NBA players, he expanded his analysis to NBA history as to why Davis is not a three-point shooter.
“Anthony Davis also has the 12th worst three-point percentage in NBA history,” he said. “Why are you encouraging him to shoot more threes?”
.@stephenasmith does NOT want AD shooting more threes per game 👀🍿
— First Take (@FirstTake) October 11, 2023
"[Anthony Davis has] the 12th worst three-point percentage in NBA history. Why are you encouraging him to shoot more threes?" pic.twitter.com/fh6B3puyy3
While his initial take on the matter might sound like a dig, a big reason why Smith doesn’t want Davis shooting more is because of how highly he thinks of the Lakers star.
“When healthy, and brings his A-game, Anthony Davis is a top seven player on the planet earth,” Smith said. “He doesn't need to shoot threes. As far as I’m concerned, encouraging him to shoot threes is encouraging him to stay away from being the big boy and playing a big man’s game, which is going to be hazardous to the success of the Los Angeles Lakers.”
So far in his career, Davis has averaged 1.6 three-point attempts per game, and put up just 1.3 attempts per game last year. His career high in attempts was 3.5 in his first season with the Lakers, the only time he averaged over three attempts per game. Increasing that output to six would be a major change in the way Davis plays the game.
