Diagnosing the Lakers’ underperformance from downtown

Photo by Brian Babineau/NBAE via Getty ImagesAfter the second straight season in the league’s bottom third of 3-point shooting accuracy, the Lakers apparently made an organizational decision to cash in their defensive prowess on the perimeter (Alex Caruso, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, and Kyle Kuzma) for playmaking (Russell Westbrook) and outside shooting (just about everybody else who’s new).

Of the seven non-bigs the Lakers signed in the first couple days of free agency, five were coming off of career-highs in 3-point shooting, and five of them shot at least 40% in 2020-21.

So far, that gamble has yet to pay off on the whole. The Lakers as a team have shot significantly more accurately in…