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Jake LaRavia knew he’d have to make changes.
Adapt.
Tweak his approach entering his second year with the Lakers after a 2025-26 season that started with personal highs came with a disappointing ending.
LaRavia, 24, had the biggest role on the best team he played for last season with the Lakers.
He played in a career-high 82 regular season games – one of the league’s 18 Iron Men in 2025-26 – started more than half (43) of the regular season and nearly played as many minutes last season (2,061) as he did in the previous four seasons of his NBA career combined (2,569).
The two-year, $12 million contract signed with the Lakers during the 2025 offseason was looking like a steal for the franchise for the first half of the season.
But then LaRavia started slumping.
His perimeter shot went from reliable to suspect, with the Pasadena, CA native shooting 26.2% on 3-pointers during the final 23 games of the regular season.
LaRavia’s offensive aggression dipped along with his shooting percentages.
And after being a focal point in the rotation the entire season, his playing time in the playoffs diminished, including receiving a pair of DNP-CD’s (did not play – coach’s decision) in the Lakers’ final two playoff games of their second-round sweep to the Thunder.
“This summer was a summer reflection and intentionality for me,” LaRavia said. “The second half of the season last season was not the way that I intended it to go. You hit mental lapses in the season. I hit a mental lapse last season and I wasn’t able to shake back from it. And as a professional athlete, that can happen, but when you play on this stage, that can’t happen. So this summer, a lot of it was just mental reflection for me and working on that side of the game.
“The other thing was just working on my jump shot because that was the biggest thing. I’m going to come out every game, I’m going to play hard. I’m going to play defense. I’m going to crash and I’m going to rebound. But consistency with the shooting was a very big thing for me.”
LaRavia’s reflections, which include daily journaling, are paying off during the Lakers’ preseason, with the 2022 first-round pick being one of the more consistent performers.
After Thursday’s win over the Kings, LaRavia’s averaging 12.7 points, 3.3 rebounds and 2.0 assists so far during preseason.
Most impressively, he’s shooting 53.8% (7-of-13) on 3s so far after making tweaks to his jump shot. He has worked with Lakers coach JJ Redick, one of the best shooters in NBA history, and assistant coach Beau Levesque on his form during the summer.
“Jake had a really nice base and foundation to shoot with, so it wasn’t like he was completely revamping his shot,” Redick said. “It was small tweaks. And ultimately the tweaks don’t matter if they don’t give you confidence. And so I feel like he’s shooting the ball with a lot of confidence right now, and he feels confident in his shot.”
The hope is that LaRavia will maintain his confidence even when the results aren’t in his favor.
The 24-year-old understands he’ll have shooting slumps.
It’s the nature of an 82-game regular season.
But the hope is that the physical, and mental, changes will yield more consistent results for LaRavia outside of when he is or isn’t making shots.
“One thing that kind of changed for me this year was focusing more on the input rather than the output,” LaRavis said.
“So not really focused on my makes or my misses, but am I doing everything in my control to give myself the best opportunity to make the shot? So as far as the output goes, I’m not really concerned about how many shots I’m making right now because at some point I’m gonna also miss shots. But as long as the input stays the same, then I’ll be consistent.”
