Lakers News: How Jalen Hood-Schifino's Signature Skill Can Abet LA
One may ask on a team that features the likes of Anthony Davis, LeBron James, Austin Reaves and more, why would you need more scoring? The answer to that lies within all of the challenges that comes with lengthy playoff series.
The best of teams game plan and successfully get the ball out of the hands of opposing superstars and force other players on the team to beat them. Your Los Angeles Lakers saw this late in their second round series against the Golden State Warriors where they called upon Lonnie Walker IV, someone who had fallen out of the rotation, to lead them to a critical victory in the fourth quarter.
You never know when a team will look to certain names to get them going and we've seen this happen a number of times over the past few seasons. There's a reason why teams do their best to fill all 15 roster spots, even if it means making the most of their two way contracts as they never know when obstacles like injuries and load management will come their way.
Therefore, even though the Lakers already have a number of serviceable guards on their squad such as D'Angelo Russell, Austin Reaves and Gabe Vincent, 2023 first rounder Jalen Hood-Schifino will look to provide value to the roster sooner rather than later.
He has a ideal size and physical tools at the point guard position and even though he didn't connect from deep initially in the summer league, there are plenty of reasons that point to him being a critical part of LA's future.
Hood-Schifino specifically excels on offense when he is able to attempt pull-up jumpers and Bleacher Report's Jonathan Wasserman broke down the numbers perfectly!
"At Indiana, Jalen Hood-Schifino drilled 80 pull-up jumpers in 32 games. Shooting off the dribble represents his go-to method for scoring.It keeps a lack of explosiveness from hurting him too much, as Hood-Schifino doesn't need to get all the way to the rim to threaten defenses. He shot 42.1 percent on 152 two-point jumpers, showing a high comfort level stopping and popping in the mid-range. He also made 37.1 percent of his pull-up threes, compared to just 30.4 percent on catch-and-shoot threes."
(Via Bleacher Report)
The NBA is definitely much different than college and it will be harder at first for Hood-Schifino to get comfortable looks at the basket off the dribble but considering that he'll be playing alongside other scorers, the opportunities will be there for him.
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