LeBron says elbow injury forced him to alter shot motion, for the better
If Markelle Fultz is looking for a silver lining in the shoulder-injury saga that appears to have broken his shot, he need look no further than LeBron James.
James says he too had to rework his shooting motion this past offseason when an elbow injury cropped up shortly after the NBA Finals.
"I'm at a point now in my career where I know if I need to make an adjustment here or there," he told ESPN's Dave McMenamin.
Eventually, the swelling in his elbow subsided, but James said his adjustments, born of necessity though they were, have actually improved his shooting. So he didn't revert back to his old form.
"I shoot it higher," he explained. "When the swelling went down I just continued to do the same motion, the same motion. My free throws, my threes, my pullups, all that."
The sample size is small, but through four games the numbers more than support James' claim. He's shooting 61.4 percent from the field, 44.4 percent from 3-point range, and 88.2 percent from the free-throw line. His career highs from those spots: 56.7, 40.6, and 78.0, respectively.
James is especially hopeful he can maintain that unprecedented clip from the stripe, where he has always struggled, and where he shot a career-low 67.4 percent last season.
"I want to shoot 80 (percent) from the free-throw line, man," James told McMenamin. "That's my only goal. That's my last goal of my NBA career. That's my last one. I've done everything else."
His sharpshooting teammate Kyle Korver then challenged him to go 50-40-90 for the season, a shooting line only seven players have ever achieved.
"I definitely got the 50," James said. "The 50 ain't s---. I can shoot 50 in my sleep. I'm almost damn near 60. I can shoot 60. ... I can go 50-40-85. Maybe. We'll see."
Korver has taken note of James' new and improved form, too.
"You can tell he worked on it a lot this summer," Korver told McMenamin. "So it's just much more compact and strong than I've seen from him on a consistent basis."