Originally published by LakersNation.com
One of the more surprising developments of this season for the Los Angeles Lakers has been the emergence of big man Drew Timme, who earned a two-way contract with the team after some excellent play for the South Bay Lakers in the G League.
And any time Timme has been given some minutes, he has handled himself well, including his 14-point night in the Lakers’ loss against the San Antonio Spurs.
One interesting wrinkle for Timme has been the development of his 3-point shot as he attempted just 72 in his entire four-year college career at Gonzaga, knocking down only 25%. But he is shooting 41.2% from deep so far this year and he credited many for his improvement, including the Lakers staff from head coach JJ Redick on down.
“I mean I’ve been working so hard on that for the past six years,” Timme said. “[I’m] really trying to add that to my game, and it’s been with a lot of people I’ve been working with, especially my high school coach, Coach Johnson. That dude’s got a lot of cardio with me, chasing after all my missed shots. But it’s something you have to have in today’s game, and it’s something that I’ve really been working at.
“I feel like I’ve been shooting the ball pretty well lately. I just continue to get that confidence, and it helps. When you look to the bench and JJ and the coaches are encouraging you to shoot it, and then when I’m in South Bay, Zach [Guthrie] and them are really encouraging me to keep shooting it. It makes it easier to work on something when the guys you look to are giving you confidence and encouragement. I think that’s been a huge part because if you don’t believe it’s gonna go in, it’s definitely not going in. Those guys help give me the confidence to keep shooting it.”
Timme also thanked his coaches for finding new and different shooting drills in order to keep him engaged.
“I’m one of those guys where I can’t do one drill a lot, so I drive my coach crazy,” Timme added. “But we have to find lots of different drills and lots of different challenges and stuff. It’s just anything and everything. We’re just looking up stuff to work on, different shooting drills. So it’s a lot of variety. I’m a bit of a space cadet sometimes so I gotta stay engaged and have different stuff to do and that’s why it’s so fun.”
As a freshman at Gonzaga, Timme took just three 3-pointers, and went on to become an All-American in subsequent years despite his lack of outside shooting. But the big man understood that he would have to evolve his game if he wanted to play at this level.
“I bet two of them were half-court heaves (laughs),” Timme responded when asked about his lack of 3-pointers as a freshman. “Honestly, yes and no. At the time, no. But the more the league started to change, obviously it’s adapt or die. It’s Darwinism. If you want something and you want to get to this level, you have to do whatever the trend of the game is. And the trend was obviously like more and more 3s. It was hard in college. Obviously I’d work on it, but it’s hard when you’re so good at scoring in the post and everything and creating out of there. It’s hard when you’re trying to win to work on your game as well.
“But just taking the time in the offseason to really work on it and dial in on it. Just playing a bunch of pickup and being comfortable being uncomfortable. One of the dudes on the Spurs staff, Tim Martin, used to be my trainer too back in the day and I was talking to him for a while and he’s like man, it’s so cool to see how far you’ve come with your shot. It’s been a lot of tinkering and changes with it, but it’s in a good spot right now I just gotta continue to stay with it.”
It is that mindset and willingness to put in the work that has led Timme to this point in his career and will continue to serve him well as he tries to continue cementing himself as an NBA player.
Adou Thiero felt ‘back to normal’ in return for Lakers
Lakers rookie Adou Thiero made his return from injury in the team’s loss to the Spurs and he says he felt normal in his first game back in over a month.
Have you subscribed to our YouTube channel? It’s the best way to watch player interviews, exclusive coverage from events, participate in live shows, and more!
One of the more surprising developments of this season for the Los Angeles Lakers has been the emergence of big man Drew Timme, who earned a two-way contract with the team after some excellent play for the South Bay Lakers in the G League.
And any time Timme has been given some minutes, he has handled himself well, including his 14-point night in the Lakers’ loss against the San Antonio Spurs.
One interesting wrinkle for Timme has been the development of his 3-point shot as he attempted just 72 in his entire four-year college career at Gonzaga, knocking down only 25%. But he is shooting 41.2% from deep so far this year and he credited many for his improvement, including the Lakers staff from head coach JJ Redick on down.
“I mean I’ve been working so hard on that for the past six years,” Timme said. “[I’m] really trying to add that to my game, and it’s been with a lot of people I’ve been working with, especially my high school coach, Coach Johnson. That dude’s got a lot of cardio with me, chasing after all my missed shots. But it’s something you have to have in today’s game, and it’s something that I’ve really been working at.
“I feel like I’ve been shooting the ball pretty well lately. I just continue to get that confidence, and it helps. When you look to the bench and JJ and the coaches are encouraging you to shoot it, and then when I’m in South Bay, Zach [Guthrie] and them are really encouraging me to keep shooting it. It makes it easier to work on something when the guys you look to are giving you confidence and encouragement. I think that’s been a huge part because if you don’t believe it’s gonna go in, it’s definitely not going in. Those guys help give me the confidence to keep shooting it.”
Timme also thanked his coaches for finding new and different shooting drills in order to keep him engaged.
“I’m one of those guys where I can’t do one drill a lot, so I drive my coach crazy,” Timme added. “But we have to find lots of different drills and lots of different challenges and stuff. It’s just anything and everything. We’re just looking up stuff to work on, different shooting drills. So it’s a lot of variety. I’m a bit of a space cadet sometimes so I gotta stay engaged and have different stuff to do and that’s why it’s so fun.”
As a freshman at Gonzaga, Timme took just three 3-pointers, and went on to become an All-American in subsequent years despite his lack of outside shooting. But the big man understood that he would have to evolve his game if he wanted to play at this level.
“I bet two of them were half-court heaves (laughs),” Timme responded when asked about his lack of 3-pointers as a freshman. “Honestly, yes and no. At the time, no. But the more the league started to change, obviously it’s adapt or die. It’s Darwinism. If you want something and you want to get to this level, you have to do whatever the trend of the game is. And the trend was obviously like more and more 3s. It was hard in college. Obviously I’d work on it, but it’s hard when you’re so good at scoring in the post and everything and creating out of there. It’s hard when you’re trying to win to work on your game as well.
“But just taking the time in the offseason to really work on it and dial in on it. Just playing a bunch of pickup and being comfortable being uncomfortable. One of the dudes on the Spurs staff, Tim Martin, used to be my trainer too back in the day and I was talking to him for a while and he’s like man, it’s so cool to see how far you’ve come with your shot. It’s been a lot of tinkering and changes with it, but it’s in a good spot right now I just gotta continue to stay with it.”
It is that mindset and willingness to put in the work that has led Timme to this point in his career and will continue to serve him well as he tries to continue cementing himself as an NBA player.
Adou Thiero felt ‘back to normal’ in return for Lakers
Lakers rookie Adou Thiero made his return from injury in the team’s loss to the Spurs and he says he felt normal in his first game back in over a month.
Have you subscribed to our YouTube channel? It’s the best way to watch player interviews, exclusive coverage from events, participate in live shows, and more!
