Los Angeles Lakers: Anthony Davis is transforming into Chris Bosh and Kevin Love

The Los Angeles Lakers’ request to have Anthony Davis shoot more 3’s was simply the first step in the process of conforming to the LeBron James offense

There is a prevailing thought within the Los Angeles Lakers organization that Anthony Davis should increase the frequency of his 3-point attempts. According to Dave McMenamin of ESPN, head coach Frank Vogel told Davis to shoot at least five 3’s in a road game against the Oklahoma City Thunder.

However, one can argue that the request to have Davis shoot more 3’s was simply the first step in the process of conforming to the LeBron James offense. Anthony Davis did a significant amount of his offensive work as a roll man in the pick and roll averaging 5.2 points per game on 4.78 possessions. This accounted for 19.5 percent of his scoring output as he averaged 26.7 points.

Unfortunately, LeBron doesn’t like it when his big men roll to the basket via the pick and roll. Tristan Thompson was only allowed to roll to the basketball 1.53 times per game in three seasons with LeBron James. His pick and roll possessions increased upon LeBron’s decision to leave the Cleveland Cavaliers as he averaged 1.9 per game last season.

LeBron prefers that the paint be left empty because he wants to spread the defense as much as possible. Spreading out the defense lessens the likelihood that they can stop multiple offensive attacks. If the defense chooses to send multiple defenders at LeBron, they won’t have to time to go back and adequately contest a 3-pointer.

On the other hand, if defenders stay close to the shooters, LeBron will face single coverage, making it easier for him to drive to the basket and score. One example of this can be found early in the first quarter of a Cavaliers home game against the New Orleans Pelicans when James dribbled the basketball to the 3-point line.

Once this happened, LeBron rejected the screen set by Thompson as he passed the ball to Kevin Love, who was wide open in-between the left corner and wing. Love ended the play by missing a 3.

Having a roll man would impact the effectiveness of these plays as the roll man’s defender is already standing in the paint, ready to slide over and provide help defense on James. This allows the other three defenders to stay with the shooters lowering the likelihood that the team can get an uncontested shot.

Consequently, LeBron James wants his co-star, big men, to spend more time in the role of a 3-point shooter. For example, Chris Bosh only took 2.3 percent of his shots from behind the arc during his first seven seasons in the NBA with the Toronto Raptors.

However, he saw a significant spike in his 3-point attempts when he joined LeBron on the Miami Heat as 9.5 percent of his field-goal attempts were from behind the arc.

Chris Bosh isn’t the only player to see a substantial change in his shot distribution as Kevin Love suffered the same fate. Kevin Love only took 23.6 percent of his shots from behind the arc during his first six seasons in the NBA with the Minnesota Timberwolves.

However, he saw a substantial increase in his 3-point attempts when he joined LeBron in Cleveland as 44 percent of his field-goal attempts were from behind the arc. In two games since being told to shoot more 3’s, 39.4 of his field-goal have been from behind the arc.

This is a 24.2 percent increase from the previous 13 games. Not only that, it is a 32.2 percent increase from his time in New Orleans. In conclusion, Big men will always have to change their game to conform to the LeBron James system; Anthony Davis is the latest one on that list.