When the Los Angeles Lakers signed forward Jake LaRavia to a two-year, $12 million contract during the summer of 2025, he was a young, ascending player who was projected to give them 3-point shooting, defense and hustle. At the time, he was coming off a season in which he shot 42.3% from 3-point range.
But last season, he made just 32.1% of his 3-point attempts, and it got to the point where he had clearly lost so much confidence that he was refusing to shoot the ball, both from long distance and in the paint. Coming into training camp this year, he had become somewhat of a forgotten man.
But through three preseason games this week, LaRavia has regained his outside shooting touch. He has made 14 of his 22 field-goal attempts and shot 6-of-11 from 3-point range in those three games combined, and in Thursday’s 114-110 win over the Sacramento Kings, he went 6-of-9 overall and 3-of-6 from downtown, giving him 17 points.
After the game, he said he put in lots of work this summer to revive his shooting touch.
“I mean, I think me being intentional before every game and all the reflection I did this past summer has really helped,” LaRavia said. “I think the one thing that kind of changed for me this year was focusing more on the input rather than the output, so not really focused on my makes or misses, but, ‘Am I doing everything in my control to give myself the best opportunity to make the shot?’
“So as far as the output goes, I’m not really concerned about how many shots I’m making right now because at some point, I’m also going to miss shots. But as long as the input stays the same, then I’ll be consistent.”
Much of the time, when a player who has shot well in the past is going through a prolonged slump, it is a mental thing more than a physical thing. That is something LaRavia admitted, although he said he also made one change to his shot mechanics.
“I think a lot of it was mental. Also just tweaking a couple things to make the shot a little bit more consistent. Obviously, like I put my shot more to the right side of my body now, to just make it a little bit more linear. But a lot of it was really mental. And again, this past summer really helped with that.”
A permanent return to high efficiency from the outside by LaRavia would greatly help a Lakers offense that many seem to feel can be elite this season. It could even give him a shot at earning a starting job.
Last season, LaRavia was in the starting lineup for 43 games and was the only player on the team to appear in all 82 regular-season contests.
This article originally appeared on Lakers Wire: Jake LaRavia on what he did over the summer to improve his shooting
