At the age of 39, when most players have already retired, LeBron James is still considered one of the top stars in the NBA. In the 2023/24 season alone, he averaged 25.5 points, 7.2 rebounds, and 8.2 assists with a shooting percentage of 53.8%.
While still maintaining excellent form, LeBron James is undoubtedly affected by the passage of time. The Los Angeles Lakers’ superstar has limited his explosive plays from his youth, as his endurance and physical condition no longer allow him to do so regularly.
So why is LeBron James still able to maintain an impressive performance in the 2023/24 season? The answer lies in his three-point shooting, as the 39-year-old star continues to improve this skill throughout his career.
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According to coach Dave Hopla, who specializes in training basketball shooting skills for many NBA teams, he has closely followed LeBron James’ career since 2023. He acknowledges that LeBron’s improvement in three-point shooting has helped him maintain his peak performance in the NBA.
“Before, LeBron used to lean to the left when shooting threes, affecting his accuracy. However, he has improved this aspect in recent years, and that has made a difference in LeBron James’ games,” Dave Hopla shared with ESPN.
Looking back to the 2003/04 season when LeBron first appeared in the NBA, he only had a 29% three-point shooting success rate. Even after improving this aspect over the years, LeBron has never been considered an efficient player in making long-range shots.
However, that has changed in recent years. Just in the 2023/24 season alone, LeBron James has a three-point shooting percentage of 41.3%, much higher than the league average of 36.6%. Not long ago, LeBron also made 9 out of 10 three-point shots against the Brooklyn Nets, an almost unbelievable performance even in practice sessions.
The last time LeBron James had a three-point shooting percentage above 40% was in the 2012/13 season when he converted 40.6% of his three-point attempts. However, LeBron only attempted an average of 3.3 three-point shots per game in that season, much lower than the 5.2 attempts per game in the 2023/24 season.
Improving his three-point shooting ability has made LeBron James a significant threat to opposing defenses alongside his powerful drives, which have been his trademark. Besides, this improvement also helps LeBron James maintain better conditioning in games, which is crucial given that he is 39 years old.
LeBron James’ peak performance will be the hope for the Los Angeles Lakers to go beyond the Play-In round and advance further in the NBA Playoff 2023/24 season.