Lakers hope to rework Julius Randle's shooting form

Los Angeles Lakers forward Julius Randle is an overwhelming bundle of explosive athleticism and raw power.

The 20-year-old doesn't back down from anybody, and is a gifted driver. He's excellent at putting his shoulders down and pummeling his way to the basket with a rare combination of strength, quickness, and ball-handling.

Randle's weakness, however, is his jump shot. He's shooting just 33 percent outside the paint. The Lakers hope to rectify that.

As the OC County Register's Bill Oram writes:

Next summer Randle will be asked to unlearn the shot he has always had and start focusing on things as fundamental as forming an "L" with his elbow.

"I'm just not sure if he knows how much work it's going to take to do it," Murray said.

Randle said his jump shot is more or less the one that first took shape when his playing career began in youth leagues in suburban Dallas.

"It was just learned everywhere I've gone," Randle said. "I haven't done anything where I've changed my shot dramatically. Little things, getting rotations on the ball, getting lift, legs, all that stuff."

Randle, who admitted he never really received any formal training with respect to his jumper, could certainly stand to improve his form. Even during practice, it's clear the left-handed forward struggles to repeat a consistent form on his shot, and that his shooting elbow flares out.

The goal with honing the outside shot isn't to change Randle's game. Rather, head coach Byron Scott says finding consistency on his outside shot will open up his interior game.

"(A jump shot) keeps everybody honest (defensively)," Scott said, "and if you have to play him for making jump shots, now it gives him the ability to do the thing we know he can do, which is get to the basket."

Randle could certainly afford to add an effective counter. Defenses have sat back and dared him to shoot, which has dropped Randle's field-goal percentage in the restricted area down to an abysmal mark of 47.3 percent.

But if he's able to offer a different look and keep defenses honest, Randle could become the superstar the Lakers envisioned when they selected him seventh overall in 2014.

"He puts the ball on the floor like no other power forward in this league," Dirk Nowitzki said of Randle earlier this month.