Don't tell the Los Angeles Lakers that shooting reigns supreme in modern day basketball. After JJ Redick and his staff tried to go in that direction last season, 2025-26 has quietly featured the team backing away from that strategy with noticeable abruptness.
With new personnel in the building, the Lakers have not had the same urgency they did last season when it came to letting the basketball fly from beyond the arc. There are layers to why this change has happened, and why this might just be the norm in Los Angeles for the immediate future.
Lakers are completely changing where their offense is coming from
Looking at the Lakers offense following the All-Star break offers the best example of what Redick and his staff were trying to do following the Luka Doncic trade. The immediate standout? Los Angeles wanted to shoot the ball from deep, a lot.
The Lakers were taking 46.9 percent of their shots from behind the 3-point line, according to NBA.com. That ranked fourth in the NBA, and was a dramatic increase from what they were doing before the break. Leading up to that point, Los Angeles was 21st in that category.
The results of that stylistic shift offensively were a bit underwhelming. As the Lakers were acclimating to Doncic, they ranked 18th after the break in points per game (113.6) and 17th in offensive rating (115.7).
Their bombardment of 3-pointers returned acceptable results, as far as the percentages go. The Lakers were connecting on 37.6 percent of their 40.0 attempts from deep after the All-Star break.
However, once the postseason came around, everyone knows how that story went. Their evolving brand of basketball did not prove to be enough against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
The firepower certainly lacked encouraging results. The Lakers finished with the 12th-ranked offensive rating in the 2025 NBA Playoffs.
Perhaps as a result of those shortcomings, Redick and his staff have gone away from that approach so far in 2025-26. The Lakers offense looks much different.
Los Angeles is shooting the majority of their shots from inside the arc, taking 61.5 percent of the attempts from 2-point. Adding a real interior force like Deandre Ayton probably has a role in that. So does having Doncic back to a version of himself that can create rim pressure inside.
The midrange area has also proven very effective for the Lakers in terms of getting their buckets. They currently rank sixth in the NBA when it comes to the percentage of their points coming from that area.
Switching up their philosophy has paved the way for the Lakers to return to the top-10 units in the NBA on the attack. Their offensive rating currently places them 9th in the league.
It is difficult to say whether this is exactly how the Lakers will continue to operate, given they still need to reintegrate LeBron James upon his eventual return to the lineup. However, Redick and his group have a foundation for what works. The challenge from here is to build upon it.