Coach Darvin Ham of the Los Angeles Lakers is relying heavily on Anthony Davis’ 3-point shooting this year.

“I want him, if he can — I know he won’t do it, but maybe he’ll shоck me — but I’ve requested to see six 3-point attempts a game,” Ham stated following Tuesday’s practice. “At least three times per half. If I didn’t think he could handle it, I wouldn’t ask it of him.

The big man has followed his coach’s instructions thus far in the preseason, making three of six 3-point attempts in a total of twenty-seven minutes of action against the Golden State Warriors and Brooklyn Nets. This would be a huge improvement for Davis, who shot 3’s at a rate of only 1.3% on average previous year. In 2019-20, his first season with the Lakers, he averaged a career-high 3.5 points per game.

Last season, only Julius Randle (8.3) and Lauri Markkanen (7.7) averaged double-digit minutes at power forward or center while also shooting at least that many threes. All-Star guards Darius Garland and Devin Booker both averaged 6.0 attempts from deep.

After shooting 25.7% from outside the arc in the regular season of 2022-23 and 33.3% in the postseason, Davis spent the offseason working on his outside shot with Lakers assistant coach Chris Jent.

On the topic of his 3-point shot, Davis remarked, “Just getting back to being a threаt at all three levels,” at the team’s media day last week. We won’t know where we stand until we start playing games and having practices. When there is no pressure on them, anyone may make shots during practice.

Davis has had a lot of trouble with his jump shooting ever since the Lakers’ 2020 championship run, so any improvement there would be greatly appreciated. Davis’s effective field goal percentage of 53 on 162 jump shots was above the league average for the 2020 postseason, when he was playing in the playoffs on the bubble.

Since then, however, Davis has shot only 38.2% from beyond the arc in the regular season and postseason combined. ESPN Stats & Information shows that among 245 players who have attempted at least 500 jump shots over the past three seasons, he is deаd last. Davis’s inability to Һit the mark from deep has directly affected his team’s results over the past few years. Last year, the Lakers were 25th in the league (34.6%) in 3-point percentage as a team.

L.A. has shot better from outside the arc as a team so far in preseason, making 35 of 93 attempts (37.6%).

Davis told reporters after the Brooklyn game, “We talk about getting more 3s up.” There have been a lot of 3-pointers because of the way the league has evolved. But they arrived in sync with one another… We want to feel secure in our attempts and fire away.

When the regular season begins on October 24 against the Denver Nuggets, who are coming off a championship last year, Ham expects to keep pushing Davis to take shots from deep.

“That’s something that he’s worked on — being a more consistent shooter and not just more consistent in his [normal] areas but consistent from deep range,” said Ham. And without any reluctance. I’m not going to analyze this too deeply. We’ve all told him to flash his nice looks, so he might as well.