Gentry wants Davis to shoot more 3 pters

Listen to yourself, you are comparing AD to Ibaka.

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Listen to yourself, you are comparing AD to Ibaka.

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Awesome comment! Yep, that is exactly what I did.

Actually, what I did is state some cases of power forwards with good games inside the arc take their games beyond the arc and become less efficient. You draw less free throws, get less offensive rebounds, and make yourself easier to defend because defenses don't have to be as aware of you.

When AD rim ran last year, the whole defense sucked in and that got guys open looks. Also, AD can't put the ball on the court for 3-4 dribbles yet. So defenses can just close out hard on him.

We can have an in-depth, intelligent discussion about this. Or posts like the last tool. Your choice.

I will also point out that the year Gentry's Suns made the Finals and had one of the best offenses ever, Amare took 6 three's. The Suns still had plenty of space and Amare had a terrific year. It's not necessary for AD to take his game out there. It can benefit, especially when Asik is on the court, but I just don't want to see it a ton. 60 - 100 attempts this year would be fine by me.

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It can benefit, especially when Asik is on the court

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I think this is a key. It would allow Asik and Tyreke to both be better if AD draws a big out to the perimeter. And if Tyreke is coming off the bench and Asik doesn't finish, then you might only see those 3 together for 5-10 minutes a game.

Yeah I think 1-2 attempts per game is fine on average depending how he does. See what happens and really spread defenses out more.

I'm a fan of this in theory.. but one of the downsides of the analytic movement is that some take it too far and think every midrange shooter suddenly needs to start jacking 3s. It's an argument for individual efficiency, and it makes sense, but I think it leaves out a lot of context.

Davis became more reliant on his midrange shot last year, but I don't think that was a bad thing. Teams regularly sent 3rd defenders to cut off his rim-runs and it got to the point where he just couldn't get the ball--so the easiest way to fix this was to let Davis pop out to midrange more often and use his improved midrange J. And despite the change and an increase in usage, he still improved his efficiency.

But beyond efficiency, I am a big fan of Davis's pick/pop game because of his continued evolution as a passer. Having the ball in the middle of the floor allows Davis to basically pass anywhere on the court with ease, particularly since he can throw over the top of just about anyone. Marc Gasol is lethal doing just this, and though Davis isn't the passer Gasol is, he's more of a scoring threat, and I think he can be similarly effective. Even if you go back to the Clippers-Warriors series 2 years ago, the Clips trapped Curry on Curry/Lee pick/rolls-->Curry found Lee-->Lee picked apart the Clips defense. I don't think teams will be trapping any of our guys in favor of leaving Davis, just outlining some of the ways that a very basic pick/roll can become dynamite if you have a big who can shoot/pass from the middle of the floor.

Past that, as others have pointed out, having Davis step out to 3 would probably have some spacing benefits and would also probably come at the expense of some few offensive rebounds.

I think there will probably be between 1 and 1.5 times per game this year that Davis will find himself in a position to shoot 3s.. and that's basically where I think he should end up. Between 80 and 120 3 pointers attempted, assuming he stays healthy for the entire season.

Thanks, corndeaux

I want more 3's as his ball handling gets better. Once he is a threat to drive it all the way in if people close hard, I am fine with him standing behind the arc on 20-30% of possessions. But let's be honest - if he took more than one dribble last year, the chances of a turnover or terrible shot went way up.

I think these two things have to go hand in hand.

TD is a very good place to get aggregated Pels info--and as I've transitioned to a big boy job, I have less time to scroll through 1000s of tweets to find that info myself. TD is a very valuable resource and there is definitely some great dialogue. So I'll probably be more active here than I used to be.